P4R: The Hangover
by UngratefulDead
Summary: The drinks were spiked, with what and by who, they couldn't say. Nor could they say what they had done the night prior. All they knew was they had screwed up bad. And they only had a few hours to make it right. AU spin-off of Persona 4 Requiem. Can be read as a standalone. OC x Chie. Strong language warning.
1. Chapter 1

**A BRIEF NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR**

**P4R: The Hangover is a spinoff of Persona 4 Requiem, a currently ongoing fanfiction, based on OC's. As such, 'Hangover' features OC's introduced in Requiem over the course of it's story. ****However: The story is entirely self-contained and you do NOT need to read Persona 4 Requiem to understand what is going on, and as such, Persona 4: Requiem should be considered optional reading. ****Likewise Requiem is not needed to be read to enjoy 'The Hangover,' 'The Hangover' is not required reading for Persona 4: Requiem and is to be considered a what-if scenario: It is non-canonical to Persona 4: Requiem's storyline.**

**Thank you, and please enjoy.**

* * *

Chapter 1

* * *

"Ugh… My heeeeead…."

Justin groaned a slightly as he pushed himself up from his resting place on the floor. Why the floor? Who knew? All he knew was it was so much more comfortable than trying to raise his pounding head from its surface. His entire body was aching as he pushed himself over on his back, having given up trying to get completely off the ground. He was sore all over; though nowhere was near as sore as his head right now. It felt like someone had smacked him across the skull with a mallet. He pinched at his forehead, trying to loosen the tension in his head by rubbing the muscles in his skull. It wasn't really working, unfortunately. He sighed a bit, slowly opening his eyes to stare at the ceiling…

Wait…

Justin immediately jumped up into a sitting position, being slightly alarmed by the sight of the ceiling above him. That was NOT the same color ceiling as they hotel his class was staying at. Not even close. The place they were staying was this weird, disgusting shade of purple. Who the hell decided it would be a good idea to paint that place purple anyway? Probably the same guy that decided to make all the beds heart shaped. The thought sent a slight shiver down Justin's spine, especially when it really sunk in what kind of hotel that was supposed to be. He could guarantee you someone was getting sued for this trip, if only because of that hotel. But that was beside the point right now; the point was, Justin was staring up at a ceiling other than the one that accompanied his sleeping quarters for the night. This wasn't his room.

Justin quickly jumped to his feet, knocking a glass bottle over with his foot. The loud noise of glass clanging against the floor beneath him made his head scream out like a thousand burning men reaching for salvation. He reached for his head, moaning in pain as he stumbled about trying to gain his balance. It took a moment, but he eventually managed to stand on his two feet without the ground shaking beneath him like an earthquake. His eyes darted about the floor, double vision clouding his sight ever so slightly; though he could make out the general shape of everything. For starters, that glass bottle he had kicked over was definitely an empty bottle of booze. That would explain the headache. Though now that begged the question where the hell the bottle of booze came from. He tried to remember, but all he was doing was drawing a blank. He couldn't remember anything last night except…

…

King's Game. Oh Christ; now he remembered. The drinks had been spiked; by who, Justin didn't know. All he knew was he recognized the taste of alcohol. Naoto tried to say they didn't serve alcohol there; but hey, you don't have to serve alcohol to slip something into someone's drinks. He probably should have stopped drinking once he figured it out, but… Come on. They WERE having a party, and by the time Justin figured it out, half of them were already drunk anyway. He was regretting that decision now; what with having no idea where he was and all. And that still made him wonder where he got an entire bottle of… vodka!?

Justin had picked the bottle up to read off the label along its side. He had been expecting just beer or whiskey or something; he didn't expect freaking vodka. Where did he even get this? Surely he hadn't just bought it, right? He was underage, and so was the rest of the investigation team. The only person Justin knew that could get him a hold of booze was Kurt, and he was a long ways away. Justin rubbed at his head as he leaned back down to delicately put the bottle back down. Not really worth holding onto; especially not when he had no idea where he was. He should probably continue to look around for something to tell him where he was.

The floor was scattered mostly with blankets… and some clothes. Justin hadn't really noticed at first, but he wasn't wearing a shirt. He thought he felt a shiver coming down his spine, though his head hurt much too much for him to really pay it any mind. He groaned a bit as he knelt over to throw his t-shirt back on. He was supposed to wear his school uniform on this trip, but the fact of the matter was, he always wore his hooded jacket, so no one ever noticed when he wasn't wearing a uniform under it. He tugged at his golden yellow t-shirt, straightening it out as he slipped it past his head before leaning over to pick up his jacket, not too far from where he had found his shirt…

Or at least, he had at first. Instead, something else had caught his eyes. He looked down at it with disgusted curiosity before picking it up with the tip of his index finger and his thumb, not really wanting to touch it. It was a pair of panties… Now Justin was freaking out a little. He woke up with NO shirt (but he did have pants on, so that was a plus…?) and now suddenly he was finding women's underwear lying around. Whose were these? And more importantly, did that mean he and whoever this was… you know… Oh Christ; did he seriously sleep with someone? He wasn't sure what was worse; the part where he had fucked someone and didn't know who, or the part where he didn't remember losing his virginity. All he knew was, best case scenario, it was Chie. And even then, it was going to be really fucking awkward afterwards. Any other person; and he had fucked up bad. Well… worse.

"Oh fuck me." Justin remarked with disgust, dropping the panties back down to the floor below him. He would also like to note that 'fuck me' was probably some pretty poor choice of words. Especially when he heard a painful groan from somewhere in the room. And it wasn't him. His eyes widened with horror as he heard the sound of her voice echoing through the room. _That was DEFINITLY not Chie, which means… Oh… OH FUCK! N-Not that it would be better if it was Chie, but… Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit; What have I done…!?_ Justin's eyes turned to the other side of the bed that had been torn up, sheets every which way and that, terror filled anticipation as he waited to see who was on the other side. He already had enough evidence to suggest that in his drunken stupor he had cheated on his girlfriend… It really didn't MATTER who it was now. He could already feel his heart explode inside his chest, horrified at what he did. Though probably seeing who he had done the nasty with had horrified him to an even greater extent.

On the other side of the bed, head peaking up as she sat up to rub her throbbing forehead was Naoto, groaning in pain from what was no doubt an awful hangover. She didn't think there was any actual alcohol in her drink, so when Justin warned everyone, she kept on drinking. To be fair, so did Justin, but at lease he knew what he was getting into… Well; an idea of what he was getting into. If he knew THIS was gonna happen he never would have so much as touched his beverage. But he did, and now… Now shit was hitting the ceiling. Justin's jaw practically hit the floor as he spotted that all too identifiable blue hair.

He was very much considering reaching into his pocket, grabbing his gun, and blowing his brains out all over the wall right about now. Justin could barely stand Naoto; after all, she did try to accuse him AND his sister of being murderers at one point. And the best part? She tried to arrest him for giving Maya a place to stay. Called it kidnapping. Yeah, they weren't exactly on good terms after that. Especially not fucking terms. Justin shook all over with fear and disgust, wanting to vomit up all over the floor. He wasn't sure if it was the booze doing that or if the mere thought of what he had done was enough to make him physically sick. Could be both. Naoto took a deep breath in pain, her eyes closed as she rubbed at her forehead.

"Ohh, my head… I wonder if any of my teachers have some aspirin they'd be willing to part with…" Naoto mused aloud, already trying to do her detective thing. Though perhaps her inquiries should have been directed elsewhere. And they were once she opened her eyes to the messy floor around her. It didn't immediately sink in that she was somewhere else, at first assuming the mess was just her roommate being the asinine pig he was. After all, she WAS bunking with Justin. She really should have considered requesting a private room. Of course, it was only a moment more before she realized she wasn't in Kansas anymore. "What in the…!?"

Her eyes darted about the room, trying to find any indication as to where she was. The best she could get was a glance of Justin standing on the opposite end of the room, jaw hanging slightly ajar, eyes panicking for some reason. Naoto stared at him with confusion for only a moment… And then she looked down, feeling as though something was off. Literally. Her eyes widened with panic as she quickly grabbed the sheet that had been hanging off the bed to wrap herself up with, trying to shield herself from Justin's gaze. As if he really wanted to see her naked. She shouted slightly in fear, in what sounded almost like a squeal, her face beat red as she wondered what was she doing half naked on the floor of some room she had never seen before. The easiest explanation would be to just blame Justin, as usual, but something about the look on his face suggested he was just noticing she was nude himself.

"…WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?" Naoto shouted angrily as she clutched the sheet tightly to her waist, careful to cover her womanhood as best she could. It probably didn't help that it was a thin white sheet; but anything was better than nothing anyway. Justin shook his head slightly, snapping himself out of his horrified daze before thrusting his face into the palms of his hands, fingers pressing into his eyes as his head pounded with confusion, shame, and booze.

"Oh Christ, this did not happen. I'm just dreaming. Yeah that's it; this is all just a nightmare. Just give me a minute, I'll wake up in the motel in no time. And then I'll kick Naoto out of the bed." Justin muttered to himself aloud as he paced about, keeping his eyes covered as he leaned over to pick up Naoto's panties, throwing them over to her to the best of his ability. They kind of got caught on the air, you know? She got it though; she just had to lean a bit. She was horrified to find these on the opposite side of the room where Justin was. She was starting to put two and two together herself. And four wasn't exactly pretty right about now.

"…Please tell me I'm just imagining things." Naoto remarked aloud as she held her underwear in her hands, a horrified expression on her face. Her cheeks were still redder than a tomato, as would be expected from this kind of situation. Justin just shook his head a bit, head still in the palms of his hands before he walked up to a wall and started to scream into the wallpaper. He was taking this pretty hard. Naoto swallowed back what felt like vomit as she more or less got confirmation from Justin that he had come to the same conclusion. There was no way she would ever get involved with a delinquent like Justin. NO. WAY. She quickly slid her underwear back on, before throwing her sheets aside in search of her pants.

"I told you the drinks were spiked; but did you listen? NOOOOOOOooooooooo." Justin mocked her slightly, trying to push the blame on her for his own decisions. No one forced him to keep drinking after all; he was the only one who could take the responsibility for that. But still; anything to try and feel less responsible for betraying Chie like this. He could never forgive himself for this; unless of course he wasn't responsible. Naoto scoffed at him a bit, grunting with disgust that he was blaming this on her as she threw her pants back on. She was still looking for her hat around here somewhere.

"Me!? That club hasn't served alcohol since an increase in deaths related to drunk driving several years back. How was I supposed to make out that those were alcoholic beverages!?" Naoto angrily tried to defend herself from Justin's accusations. All the facts pointed to Justin's claim that the drinks had been spiked being false. And besides; from the looks of the floor right about now, she was going to guess the drinks at the club weren't what had done them in. Vodka is some pretty heavy shit after all. Justin pulled his forehead away from the wallpaper, anger in his eyes.

"I don't know, how about the part where I said 'that drink's been spiked?'" Justin countered. Naoto angrily began to approach him, as though to get in his face as she argued with him. Justin eventually conceded though, waving his hands back and forth to cut this off before it got worse. "Wait, wait, wait; we're getting off track here. Before we point any fingers we need to figure out WHERE THE FUCK ARE WE!?" Justin's cool demeanor very quickly slipped back into panic. It was bad enough that he had betrayed everything he stood for, everything he loved; they HAD to know where they were at the least. Naoto's eyes darted about the room, trying to make out heads or tails of anything in the room that could give her any indication as to where they were. She wasn't having much luck though.

"Per…haps the others know?" Naoto stammered slightly, trying to think of some way of deciphering their current location. It was bad enough they were lost; it was was worse when she considered they had no idea where the others were. Oh yeah; and they had to be on the train home after lunch today. That was in a couple of hours, if the sun in the sky was any indication. Apparently this hotel room didn't have an alarm clock. Either that or someone broke it in their drunken stupor. She was just going to go ahead and blame that one on Justin too. Justin's eyes widened slightly as Naoto pointed out the obvious solution to their woes. Call the others. After all, they must know what's going on, right? And if they don't… Well they had a bigger problem on their hands.

"Fucking- Why didn't I think of that!?" Justin remarked aloud. Naoto shrugged off his crass language as she searched around the room. Partially for any other evidence to suggest where they are, or what they did. Not that she really wanted to delve into the heart of the matter of the latter issue; she was more than content knowing she had done something unspeakably horrifying and disgusting to every bone in her body. As for the second reason she was searching the hotel room… Well she still didn't have her hat. She wasn't leaving without it; period. Justin quickly slipped his hand into his pocket, slipping his finger down the plastic surface of the phone before flipping the thing out and pressing the power button.

"I wonder how much we paid for this room…" Naoto mused as she finally caught a glance of her hat… Up on a television just out of her reach. She was actually pretty short, or at least by comparison to every single person on the investigation team. Had to make you wonder how the hat got up there in the first place. Probably got thrown up there at some point. She stretched up to try and reach it, but to not much avail. Looked like she was going to need to approach this much more strategically. There had to be something for her to stand on as a boost. Though, her concerns were drawn away from her attire for a moment as she heard Justin groan with anger. That wasn't a good sign.

"Oh fan-fucking-tastic. Battery's dead." Justin sighed dropping the phone back into his pocket, rubbing at his temples with annoyance. This was just some cruel joke God was playing on him. Why was it that everything in his life turned to shit. Every. Fucking. Thing. Justin shook his head for a moment before turning his gaze to a rather concerned Naoto. "Why do I get the feeling we're not going to be using your phone either."

"I… Don't have a cell." Naoto admitted, somewhat embarrassed. She never really saw the use for it when she could just use a pay-phone. Justin placed his forehead back into his palm. They were so fucked right about now. They knew nothing, couldn't contact anyone, oh yeah; and they were lost in the middle of fucking wherever they were. Justin sighed before marching his way over to the television and grabbing the hat for her that she had been desperately trying to grab a hold of. She seemed appreciative if slightly embarrassed. Or perhaps just shocked. He had never known Justin to show anything even remotely close to kindness. Except maybe that thing he did on the dance floor at the club with the rose. That was less 'being kind' and more 'trying way too hard to be romantic.' Point being; Justin and nice just didn't mix, and she could attest to that. "My gratitude." She thanked him before slowly slipping the hat over her head, pushing down on the rim to cover her hair. Justin just nodded a bit in confirmation.

"Well… We're not going to get much accomplished here." Justin sighed. "Let's go checkout and figure out our next move." Justin remarked, slowly turning to the door to their hotel room. Just as his fingers wrapped around it's golden brass surface however, he felt the need to turn to Naoto and make something VERY clear to her. "This never happened."

"Agreed."

* * *

"All set?"

Naoto had decided to be the one to deal with the checkout; what since Justin had zero people skills and all. Justin had just waited in the lobby, leaning against the wall as he chewed away at tooth pick. He had been trying to quit smoking as of late, and he figured the best way to do that was just to substitute it for something else to place between his teeth. It was working up until today too. Today… Today he would consider smoking the entire pack at once. Just stick them all in his mouth and take a lighter, light them one by one. Naoto sighed a bit as she leaned up against the wall next to Justin, nodding and adjusting her hat slightly.

"It seems we didn't pay upfront, but yes. Everything's been settled." Naoto remarked with slight annoyance. She had to pay out of her own pocket for something she didn't want any part in or any memory of. Perhaps it was a good thing she didn't remember last night. That would be some traumatizing shit. Justin passed her a slight apologetic look. Apologetic for a lot of things really; though primarily Naoto paying for the room.

"How much was it…? I'll pay half."

"That won't be neccesary." Naoto cut Justin off. Which was good, because as Justin slipped his hand into his pocket, he was noticing a distinct lack of his wallet. Thank god he wasn't carrying too much cash on him that day, otherwise he'd be pissed. Well… More pissed. "I find it astonishing that the staff of this hotel would allow two teenagers to rent a room with alcohol in their possession." Naoto shook her head with disgust. Surely they must have noticed Justin carrying around that thing of Vodka. Must have been a bad part of town they ended up in.

"Nevermind that. Let's just find the others… and pretend none of this ever happened." Justin cut off Naoto's rant about the poor etiquette of the faculty of wherever they were, allowing minors to so easily break the law. She nodded slightly in response, agreeing with him that they should hurry this along. "Phone's dead and we have no idea where we are… I suppose it would look suspicious if we asked the staff here where this place is."

"True." Naoto agreed. Two teenagers who had just checked out NOT knowing where they had been. That's very suspicious. It's a good thing Justin had thought a head and disposed of the empty alcohol bottles; hiding them under his shirt when they left the room before finding a trash can and tossing them. He was only surprised none of the staff had noticed the bulge of the bottles jarring out from his torso. "Perhaps they have a pay-phone we could use…"

"Excuse me, Mister Shirogane?"

The two were interrupted from their musings on the matter as a rather clumsy hotel employee approached them. He was a bit chubby, and from the looks of it, not much older than them; not to mention he seemed to be tripping over his shoe laces every five seconds. The two were a little confused what he was doing approaching them; more so how he knew Naoto's name. Sure, Naoto had signed out with her real name, but that shouldn't mean some random employee who wasn't even there should know. Naoto nodded timidly to acknowledge that she was in fact the girl this guy was looking for. Well, guy. She was still trying to pull off the 'I'm not a girl,' shit, despite all that had happened.

"Everything's all been taking care of sir; your car is out front." The employee declared, pride in his work. Justin and Naoto immediately passed each other a look of confusion and panic. Neither of them had a car; hell, neither of them had their driver's license. Unless they had a taxi outside, that was uh… Cause for concern. Something that certainly showed in the panicked expression on Justin's face. Naoto was a little more clear-head about all of this, trying to keep her nerves calm while they figured out what was going on. She was panicking a little, but it didn't show. Naoto gave the employee a timid nod of her head.

"My gratitude." She remarked, thanking him for his services and dismissing him at that moment. It wouldn't help if she said she didn't have a car and neither did Justin after all. That would just be asking for trouble; especially if they seemed to be in possession of the car. The employee nodded a bit before dropping a set of keys into her hand. Seemed it wasn't a taxi he was referring to. She had to wonder how he had managed to pull the car out front so quickly when she hadn't even requested it, but that was really beside the point. The point was, there was a car sitting out there that wasn't theirs, in their possession. If their worst fears were in fact truth and not fiction… well… They were looking at a minor felony here. Justin just hoped to god there was a loophole for doing stuff like this after being drugged. After all, if you had no control over your actions, and you hadn't done anything to MAKE you lose control; should you still be blamed for the crime? Of course, Justin full well knew about the drinks and kept drinking, but that was beside the point. He could lie… sorta.

"Jesus fucking Christ; a car!?" Justin questioned out loud frantically, trying to figure out what in the hell was going on. Did they steal it or something? Surely they couldn't have been THAT drunk… Well actually, now that Justin thought about it, he didn't remember anything, so he must have been pretty damn intoxicated… AND he knew how to pick locks. Better than anyone he knew in fact, which meant it wasn't entirely unlikely for him to have picked that bad boy open. Not sure how that happened if he was that drunk; lockpicking took skill and attention after all, but that seemed the best explanation. He was hoping they didn't just smash the windows in or something. But they were getting ahead of themselves, perhaps they should go on ahead and look at the mess they had caused in the first place. Justin sighed as he took off, immediately followed by Naoto; quickness to the two's steps.

As the two stepped through the rotating door at the entrance to the hotel, their jaws practically hit the floor. This wasn't just any car that had been stolen. It was a Ferrari. A very expensive looking, red Ferrari. Justin was a little happy that drunk him seemed to have SOME taste (though he wasn't sure how far that went when he had woken up in bed with Naoto of all people,) but was frantic that they had apparently stolen the most expensive car Justin could think of. Shooting himself in the face was looking more and more appealing every second. He ran his fingers through his hair, gripping his skull tightly as the two approached the car with wide eyes. There was a bit of paint scraped off, but otherwise the car seemed completely intact; which would be good if they ever figured out where this came from. Naoto held her breath as she flipped out the keys she had been handed a moment earlier, nervously pushing it into the slot of the door handle. It opened.

"Oh god why…?" Justin muttered to himself, fist in his mouth as he tried to stop himself from screaming in fear. This wasn't just some minor crime they could pretend never happened, to ignore. This was some serious shit they had stolen. It wasn't like just waking up drunk. Naoto could make an exception in regards to the law for a minor misdemeanor like that. It was, after all, not HER fault she got drunk. Perhaps JUSTIN'S, but she supposed he was just as much a victim of this as she. Just a slightly more willing victim. A car? She couldn't ignore this. She'd turn herself in if she had to; they couldn't just keep this car. Naoto rubbed at her temples with annoyance and fear as she held the car door open.

"...You… do realize what this means don't you." Justin shot Naoto a slight expression of anger and panic. He got what she was implying, he just couldn't believe she was so stupid to put herself and Justin in a position where they could get into some serious shit for something they weren't even AWARE of. Naoto pushed her palm against her mouth, trying to ponder a solution to their dilemma. "Just one moment… While intoxicated crimes are treated with just the same, if not more severity as a sober crime, that only applies when one himself has willingly intoxicated himself. If someone else were to, say, slip something into someone's drink…" Naoto mused aloud, explaining portions of the law to Justin. Like he wasn't familiar with what did and didn't pass as legal. His father WAS in the FBI after all.

"It would be the responsibility of whoever spiked the drinks." Justin cut her off. Naoto nodded a bit, confirming Justin's thesis as true. "That only works if we can prove they spiked the drinks Naoto…" Justin sighed with disappointment. They had no idea who put alcohol in the drinks; and that was part of the problem. They could say they were drugged all they want, but if they didn't have the evidence to put their money where their mouth was… Well, that wasn't going to get them anywhere. Naoto nodded, a somewhat devious smile reaching across her face. She clearly had a plan.

"Precisely. If we can gather the evidence needed to point us to a suspect, all charges against us shall shift over to the true culprit. I propose we investigate the matter." Naoto laid out her plan on the table. Justin rubbed at his chin for a moment. Seemed they didn't have much more choice on the matter, unless they did a good job disposing of any evidence that might link them to the crime. Which Naoto obviously wasn't going to get behind, what with her 'holier than thou sword of justice,' shit going on. Justin rubbed at his forehead, sighing slightly.

"Well that's great and all, but we've only got a few hours left before we have to be on the train home AND we don't know where the others are. For all we know they could be in the same situation as us." Justin countered, pointing out a contradiction to her plan. Naoto adjusted her cap, cheeks slightly red as Justin brought up the incident again. She thought they agreed they were going to pretend that didn't happen. Though she suppose that he just meant the lost aspect of their predicament, not the waking up half-naked part.

"Then I suppose we should get a move on." Naoto objected. If the issue was time, standing about here wasn't going to change anything… Though she did notice another problem. They still had little idea where they were, which meant travelling by foot wasn't going to get them very far with only a few hours on the clock… They were going to need to take the car. And she didn't know how to drive. She stared at the steering wheel for a moment before sighing. She wasn't very much a fan of driving a stolen vehicle around, but she supposed they didn't have much choice. This was to catch a criminal after all. "I… don't suppose you know how to operate a vehicle?" Justin bit his bottom lip, turning his attention towards the driver's seat for only a moment before turning back to Naoto.

"Not really; but I'm going to assume ONE of use drove us here." Justin remarked disappointed. Naoto was a little bit wary about taking the car at this point, but Justin did bring up a valid point. Even while intoxicate they did manage to navigate the vehicle here with only a single scratch. That's pretty damn good. Now it was just a matter of who was driving the car here. She was going to assume not her; she'd like to imagine that even drunk she objected to this. She sighed after a moment before passing off the key to him, sliding into the passenger's seat as he rounded his way over to the driver's side. It was a moment before they had all settled in. "So I'm assuming I'm just going to drive until we find something familiar." Justin questioned, hands nervously on the wheel, eyes darting about his controls. He wanted to make sure he understood where everything was before he did anything stupid.

"Or until we can find a pay-phone." Naoto interjected, pointing out that they still needed to find out where all the others had gone. Unless they found their way back on their own, they all needed to regroup; otherwise this could be very much problematic. As much as Naoto hated to admit it; making sure everyone was safe was top priority over proving their innocence. Worst come to worse after all, she could file a police report and continue her investigation after they had all gone home. Justin nodded a bit before putting the key in the ignition, starting the vehicle up. Also starting the radio up in the process.

_First thing we succumb to_

_Shout, erase and undo_

_Days are unreleased, __if there's no release_

_Please just let me do whatever fits you_

_Make something, make someone_

_Beg on a knee, baby, baby please_

_Pout your bottom lip while cracking the whip_

_You know what we want, it's candy to cum to_

_Sick, sick, sick_

_Don't resist_

_Sick, sick, sic__k_

_Don't resist_

"…I think I'm gonna change this station." Justin remarked, both Naoto and Justin's cheeks a blaze at this point. It seemed like God was finding some sick humor in all of this. He had to be; otherwise this shit wouldn't be happening. What were the chances of THAT song playing on the radio AFTER what had happened last night. He was only surprised that half of this stuff hadn't been cut for the radio edit. Or that it even made it to the radio in the first place. Whatever happened to 3's and 7's and Make it Wit 'Chu? Naoto nodded a bit, deciding that would probably be best. Justin quickly flipped the station.

_That's why, I'm hot blooded, check it and see _

_I got a fever of a hundred and three _

_Come on baby, do you do more than dance? _

_I'm hot blooded, hot blooded _

_If it feels alright, maybe you can stay all night _

_Shall I leave you my key? _

_But you've got to give me a sign, come on girl, some kind of sign _

_Tell me, are you hot mama? You sure look that way to me_

"Son of a…" Justin muttered to himself. Yet another song that would be forever ruined for him after today. He was running out of stations too, since there were only like three or four that played REAL music and not that pop garbage. Or rap; but given that stuff consisted mostly of 'move bitch, get out the way,' Justin thought he could do without the hip hop. He sighed as he quickly scrolled through the stations again using the car's console. It took a moment for him to find another station; one that Naoto seemed alright with at the very least. Not so much him. Not necessarily because he didn't like the song mind you, but…

_Du _

_Du hast _

_Du hast mich _

_Du hast mich _

_Du hast mich gefragt _

_Du hast mich gefragt _

_Du hast mich gefragt und ich hab nichts gesagt_

Justin felt the breath in his lungs completely disappear as the song progressed on the radio. Naoto had just been sitting back in the seat of her chair for a moment, just trying to think; about how they would handle this investigation, how they were going to do… well anything. They were clueless. Or at least, that's what she had been doing, but then she noticed a lack of movement on Justin's side. For a guy who was concerned about the time they had to get this done in, he sure seemed to be taking his sweet time. When she actually looked to see why he had suddenly stopped moving though, she could practically see the life draining out of his face, his expression down-trodden, hopeless… destroyed even.

"…Justin-san?" Naoto spoke up after a moment.

"Willst du bis der Tod euch scheidet, treu ihr sein für alle Tage?" Justin recited in time to the music, his voice quivering slightly, as though choking back pain. In fact, there had been little in his life as painless as this very moment. It was only really starting to seep in just what he had done. It wasn't the fucking Naoto part that was tearing up his insides… It was that he had betrayed Chie. He loved that woman, dammit, and now this… THIS had to happen. He could never forgive himself. He could never LIVE with himself. She loved him, and he had betrayed that love. He should be disgusted with himself. And he was. Never more disgusted in his life after all. Naoto just raised her eyebrow with curiosity at Justin's recital.

"You'll have to forgive me, but I'm not fluid in… um…" Naoto paused, having realized she didn't really know what language that was. She wanted to say Dutch. And she'd be completely off if she did; so it was a good thing she didn't. Justin shook his head slightly, his eyes watering ever so slightly, lips quivering a bit as though he were going to cry. But he didn't. Crying now would only mean he pitied himself. He didn't deserve pity. He didn't deserve forgiveness. He didn't deserve anything. All he could hope now was that they could find Chie, and that she'd be safe…

"It's German… Do you want, until death separates you, to be faithful to her for all time?" Justin clarified, translating to English for her. Naoto immediately understood the implications. She wasn't exactly friends with the group, but she HAD seen Justin and Chie on the dance floor that night, waiting for Rise to reserve their seats. He had put in a request for 'Smooth,' and put a rose in between his teeth as a joke. It was clear to her there was something between them. She didn't know it was this strong though… She could almost feel his pain from where she was sitting, What with having taken part in their little… betrayal and all. Justin sighed. "…Just… Just turn that off." He eventually choked up. He probably could have turned it off himself, but he just didn't feel like he had the energy. Besides; Naoto had no objections to pressing the off button. Clearly it was a little much for Justin right now. She leaned forward and quickly clicked the power button of the radio, bringing the sound to a screeching halt. Justin still didn't move a muscle though. And as much as Naoto hated to admit it; they DID have a time limit here, they didn't have much time to be lost in their doubts and pain.

"…Perhaps I should drive." Naoto interjected, realizing that Justin really wasn't in any emotional state to drive. Not that that matters when you don't know how to drive a vehicle in the first place, but you get the point. Justin was already panicking as it was without the emotional duress interfering with his perception or reaction time. Justin shook his head in denial. He doubted Naoto could even reach the pedal; let alone drive. Besides; Justin could actually pass as being old enough to drive. What with BEING old enough to drive anyway. It's just that he didn't have his license. He just… He just needed a second.

"No, I'm good, I just-" As Justin began to speak, the two heard a strange noise coming from the back. Sounded like a moan. Well, you can imagine neither were particularly pleased to find whatever car this was apparently had a stowaway. Within seconds, in a single synchronized, fluid motion the two had turned about, guns drawn from their pocket to point at whoever was in back. Turns out Yosuke had been passed out in the back… Made you wonder how the guy driving the car up front hadn't noticed that. But then neither did Naoto or Justin, so he supposed it was understandable. What was less understandable, or at least from Naoto's perspective, was why Justin had a gun. Her gaze slowly shifted away from Yosuke to glare at Justin and his weapon.

"May I ask why you're in possession of an illegal firearm?" She questioned. Justin's eyes slowly began to dilate with panic. That was right; citizens weren't legally allowed to own a pistol. Unless of course they were on the police force like Shirogane here, that is. What Justin had done in his instinctual self-defense was completely illegal; and they both knew it. He swallowed hard as his pupils eventually made their way to Naoto, a clumsy, false grin on his face.

"I… must have gotten it when I was drunk." Justin tried to cover his tracks, a nervous laughter following his lies. Naoto wasn't buying that shit for a second though; and given the kind of reputation Justin had, there was no way in hell she was letting him off the hook with owning a handgun. Especially when he was a murder suspect not that long ago. She slowly lowered her gun, since of course she had no reason to train it on Yosuke, as she diverted her attention fully to Justin.

"Are you aware that citizen gun ownership is limited to hunting rifles and shotguns only? You're looking at a major misdemeanor here." Naoto scolded Justin. Justin's nervous expression eventually subsided to one of anger. He was sick of this shit; not even just Naoto constantly trying to find an excuse to throw him in the slammer, but all of… well THIS. He just wanted to find his friends, get them on the train home, and after that, he just didn't care. Jail, home, what the fuck ever. He'd gladly embrace a prision cell by this point… After what he had done. Would be a fitting fate.

"Well then go ahead and fucking arrest me; but for the moment being, why don't you get your goddamn priorities straight. Or do you WANT to share a cell with me?" Justin remarked. Naoto wanted to speak up and mention how they would NEVER under any conditions be put in the same cell. Gender separation first and foremost would keep them apart… Though she supposed most of the folks at the police station thought she was a guy. Furthermore, putting criminals together that were involved in the same crime never happens; it might make them edgy or try to make a plan. It doesn't go down well when that happens. She supposed that wasn't the point though; the point was arresting Justin wasn't going to do her much good. Especially when he was going to help with this investigation. She sighed a bit before turning her attention back to Yosuke, the two slipping their guns back in their pockets in the process.

"Ugh… My head…" Yosuke moaned just having rejoined the conscious (and sober) world. Seemed he had quite the hangover too. He had been laying across the backseats, though he slowly started to push himself up as he regained consciousness, perhaps trying to make heads or tails of what was going on. Hopefully he knew more than Justin and Naoto did. His eyes opened to the sight of the two looking at him. And now he was very confused where he was and what they were doing. Last he remembered they were at the clu-

_King's Game. Goddammit._

"You awake?" Justin questioned Yosuke. He nodded his head timidly, though even that had managed to get a groan of pain out of him. His head felt like an overgrown watermelon that had been split open on the sidewalk. "Yosuke, please tell me you know what's going on here." Yosuke sat up all the way, skull still in the palms of his head as he tried to dull the pain. He wasn't having much luck.

"What's going on…? I'm the one who woke up in the back of a car with you two up front! Do you even have licenses!?" Yosuke shouted in panic as he slowly got a hold of his senses, still gripping at his forehead though in the process. The more he shouted in confusion, the more painful his headache. He just wanted to go back to sleep and let the pain drift away. But alas, he couldn't really do that under the circumstances that he had woken up on. Justin sighed and rubbed his head. Well at least that was one less person to look for, but Yosuke still seemed clueless about what was going on. How drunk did they all get last night anyway? He could have SWORE Yosuke had stopped drinking after Justin had pointed out that it was indeed alcohol. Same with Chie, now that he thought about it. Only… something caught Justin as a little off about Yosuke.

"Uh, Yosuke? You got a little something here?" Justin remarked, rubbing his thumb just underneath his nose. Yosuke raised his eyebrow with confusion before rubbing his index finger where Justin had instructed using his thumb. As he pulled his finger away to check if he got it, he noticed something rather peculiar. A white powder like substance smudge against his skin. Yosuke wasn't sure what he had just rubbed off, but he didn't think he very much liked it. Justin eyed the substance for a moment. "What is that stuff?" Justin questioned with curiosity. He didn't exactly know of many white powdered substances. Yosuke shook his head for a moment, not really getting it either.

"I don't know man; look, what is going on here?" Yosuke deflected the question with a question of his own. Justin sighed a bit before turning his gaze to Naoto, who had straightened up a bit and adjusted the position of her hat upon her head. Seemed she was getting ready to speak.

"Perhaps it would do us some good to go over what we do remember." Naoto spoke with an official tone to her voice, as though declaring an order. Justin and Yosuke soon found themselves rubbing at their foreheads, trying to remember anything at all. More so Yosuke given that he was a lot less clueless than the others on the matter. He had only just woken up moments ago too, and he still hadn't really known anything other than he had woken up drunk, and so too presumably Justin and Naoto… _Wait, where did those two wake up drunk? Ah, beside the point, I'll figure that out later…_

"Well…" Justin shuffled through his memories to the best of his ability. "We were all sober enough for me saying the drinks were spiked right? After that… I think… I threw the red chopstick…. Yeah, that's right! We were playing another round of King's Game, and I was the King!" Justin snapped his fingers as he remembered. The others smiled a bit; now they were getting somewhere. "Christ what did I say uh… I… Don't really reme-No wait! Yes I do! I dared the loser to streak around the block!" Justin remarked, pointing his finger at Naoto, as though trying to confirm with her. She rubbed at her chin a bit. That… sounded right.

"That explains what we were doing, but not where and when." Naoto objected slightly. "...Perhaps a good starting point would be to investigate the club. Surely there were some witnesses." Naoto recommended. Justin nodded a bit with agreement. For once, Naoto seemed right on the money. Though that did leave a little bit of a problem.

"That's all well and good and all, but I don't know how to get there from here." Justin grimaced. It was true; this was the group's first time in Tatsumi Port Island, minus of course Rise's. But Rise wasn't here. If she was, they wouldn't feel so lost right now. Justin would gladly trade Yosuke off for Rise at this moment in time. That is, until Yosuke spoke up and proved just how useful he could be. Or something he was in possession of anyway.

"Oh, here. We can use the GPS on my cell." Yosuke remarked flipping his phone open and pressing buttons on its surface to shuffle through the apps. Justin and Naoto shot him a pleasantly surprised, wide-eyed glance. He had a cell-phone and he HADN'T told them? Well to be fair, he probably didn't know that Justin's cell was dead and Naoto didn't own one, but still.

"You're cell's working!? Quick, dial up Yu and the others!" Justin barked at Yosuke. Yosuke's gaze shot up from his cell for only a moment as he realized he overlooked the main purpose of using a phone. Actually calling someone. Given that the others weren't here, he probably should have considered calling them for help anyway. Not that Justin shouldn't have been able to on his own; he DID own a cell-phone after all. Yosuke nodded before quickly diverting her attention back to his phone, quickly punching in a few numbers, trying desperately to connect to the others. He wasn't having much luck though. He shook his phone a bit with anger, disappointed that this wasn't going well.

"Gah, damn phone. I'm not getting any reception here." Yosuke grimaced with annoyance, anger and disappointment. Looks like they weren't going to be making a call from here, that was for sure. You'd think a hotel would have cell-phone reception but apparently not. He sighed a bit, his eyes darting up from the cell-phone for a brief moment. "Drive around, so I can get some reception." Justin nodded a bit before turning the key on the car's dashboard. He took a deep breath as he eyed all the controls one last time. And that… That was somewhat concerning given that it took him like five minutes to do it. "…Uh, Justin? Y-You don't know how to drive don't you." Yosuke objected as he suddenly realized Justin was examining the dashboard so much because he didn't GET the dashboard. It was like a mishmash of buttons he had no idea the purpose of.

"S-Sure I do… You put your foot on the gas, and uh… Put the stick in drive?" Wide eyed, fearful eyes fell on Justin as he tried to figure out how this worked. What Justin didn't quite realize was that you put the car in drive while holding the brake down, and only put your foot on the gas when driving off. "Fuck it, I'll figure it out eventually." Justin remarked before slamming his foot on the gas.

"Wait, don't- AHHHHH!"

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**The Hangover also has it's own official soundtrack that will be getting updated as I add chapters. Simply copy this link down at the end of the youtube domain to get access to it. For copyright reasons, some videos may be blocked in certain regions (Namely Germany). I'll try to work around copyrights by messing with the tempo and what not if it gets blocked out in any of the major regions, or in multiple countries at a time. Any changes to the audio track will be listed in the description. And of course, you could probably find the original unaltered file somewhere else on Youtube, but you get the point.**

**/playlist?list=PLsb0_THQMWWnTOylqkGINhXKRPzSvmK6h **


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

* * *

"Any luck?"

The three were still cruising around in the stolen vehicle in search of some sort of cell-phone reception. It was beyond Justin how they couldn't seem to pick up a signal anywhere. They had been driving around for at least ten minutes now, and yet they still weren't picking anything up. Had Yosuke just dropped his cell-phone in water or something? Seemed the only possible explanation. And not an all too unexpected one all things considered. Yosuke groaned a bit, shaking his head as he constantly redialed the number, trying to connect. He wasn't having much luck.

"Stupid ass phone. I knew I should have updated." Yosuke cursed at his phone with anger for being a piece of shit. It would serve more purpose as a brick than it would anything else. And not a very good brick at that.

"That or you should have gotten 4G." Justin remarked sarcastically, eyes darting all over the road. Despite having never driven a car, and potentially still having a buzz, he actually seemed to be doing a good job. Yeah, the car stopped a little abruptly at times, and he had no idea how to work the pedal when he first started, but he got the hang of it. Might have just been because he was really paranoid about everything. You know those people that drive real slow because they're afraid of going before the other cars or going over the speed limit? Yeah, that was Justin. Could you blame him when he never touched a steering wheel in all his life though? Didn't mean Yosuke was any less scared about being driven around by Justin. One foul slip was all it would take to send them all crashing into the river.

_I follow the road at night, _

_Just hoping to find _

_Which puzzle piece fell out of me. _

_I know who you are, _

_Open the door and climb in. _

_Hold me real close, then do it again, _

_I ache for the touch of my dead end friends _

The radio blasted throughout the car as Justin rounded the corner of the street, still driving aimlessly around while Yosuke tried to get his car to work. He only hoped to god that there was enough gas in the tank of this car. He'd check for himself, but alas, he knew not where the fuel-meter-thingamabob was. Really, in retrospect Justin was probably the last person that should have been driving. But he was, and he was getting real sick of wasting time trying to get that damn phone to work. If it hadn't worked by now, it probably wasn't going to anytime soon. Justin sighed as he continued to drive. "…Forget the call; Get the club up on the GPS. They'll probably have a phone there."

"I doubt the GPS will work if the phone isn't but alright…" Yosuke remarked aloud as he opened up the GPS app, fiddling about with it. You could have imagined the look on Yosuke's face when it turned out the GPS was working just fine. It was only making calls that was given him trouble. Regardless, he set everything up, the name of the mall punched into the address bar. It was a moment, but the GPS eventually started to bark out directions from Yosuke's phone… In a bad Russian accent for some reason. Justin got the feeling that Yosuke purposely set it like that.

_Turn right in .03 miles. Turn right._ The computerized voice dictated, repeating the same command twice in quick succession thanks to how close Justin already was to the curve. Was kind of annoying really, but Justin obeyed the voices of the great machine overlords like the good little human he was. He slowly rounded the curve, awaiting the response from the machine… And also wondering why Naoto had just slapped herself across the forehead, her face resting in her palm. He was hoping that meant she remembered something; though in actuality it was that she had just noticed something. _You have now reached your destination._

Justin's eyes widened with disbelief and shock as he stopped the car along the curve and poked his head around Naoto's body mass to check out the window. Sure enough, the mall was RIGHT there; and they hadn't even noticed. "You know… We REALLY should have noticed that." Justin remarked with sarcasm. Yosuke just shrugged it off; he was busy fiddling with the phone after all. And Naoto should have said something since she had been looking out the window for the last fifteen minutes anyway. Surely she must have noticed that huge ass mall. Then again, so should Justin; but we'll give him a break since he had never driven a car before and was much more focused on the road than his surroundings. "So what's the plan?" Justin questioned as he finished parking the car and pulling out the cars. He had never been more happy to be still in all his life.

"First we should ask to use the facility's pay-phone." Naoto laid out her plan after a dismissive sigh of annoyance. Not annoyance that Yosuke and Justin had no idea how to conduct an investigation, but rather annoyance that they had been driving around the mall for a couple of minutes and NO one noticed. Not even an expert detective such as herself. She was much too caught up in her other thoughts to really pay much attention to the world beyond the car window. And could you blame her when she found out that she lost her 'womanhood' in a drunken fit with some delinquent she despised more than anything else. That wasn't a pretty thought to imagine, not in the slightest. "After that, we should ask the staff if they can relay any information they had about the night before; any suspicious individuals they might have seen that could have slipped something into our beverages."

"Assuming the staff members weren't the ones who did it." Justin remarked sarcastically as he kicked open his door. Yes, he kicked open the door of a car that wasn't his, was very expensive, and also stolen. Sometimes Justin just lacked common sense. Naoto groaned a bit as she opened her door the right way, followed immediately by Yosuke. Justin did raise a valid point though; it was quite possible that the faculty had been the ones to spike the drinks. Justin did claim it tasted like alcohol, and while she didn't know how he knew that, being underaged and all, she did realize the only people really in that position is anyone who would have access to the drinks. That was pretty much every staff member there. Really, she just needed to pin-point a motive for slipping alcohol into a bunch of random teenager's drinks. Usually it was meant for sexual purposes, ala roofies; but she highly doubt that nearly EVERY drink would have been drugged if that was the case. Especially not the guys.

She shrugged her shoulders as they marched their way inside the mall, and to the club. It was, much to no one's surprise, closed during the day. Justin groaned as he stared at the closed sign on the window. That wasn't much help, now was it? How were they supposed to question the faculty if the faculty wasn't even there to begin with? Naoto approached the door, examining it thoroughly… Or rather, looking inside to see if anyone was in there. There was a single 'bartender' cleaning glasses on the inside, despite the door being locked. Seemed he was getting prepared for the work day.

"Seems one of the employees is still inside." Naoto recapped to the others as she leaned over to peer inside. Justin in turn found himself leaning over Naoto to look for himself, hovering over her as he looked higher up through the glass panels… Not much to her amusement either once she realized that meant he was standing over her behind while she crouched down. She let it slide though, figuring causing a scene would just draw unwanted attention. Yosuke sure as hell was giving Justin one of those 'seriously?' looks though. Justin had bitched him out for doing this exact same thing months ago. Though to be fair, Justin was just doing it with another guy, and Yosuke had been doing it with Justin's girlfriend. There was a gap in awkwardness there.

"Alright… So we can talk to him right? How do we get his attention though?" Justin questioned after a moment. He backed up a bit to allow Naoto to stand up and straighten out her jacket, assuming a rather official position. She looked as though she was about to announce some complex plan on how to break in. Instead she simply knocked on the door. "Well that works too." Justin shrugged. "For every complex problem, there's a simple solution."

"And it's usually wrong." Naoto remarked sarcastically, turning her attention over to the glass door, waiting to get a response. She could tell the figure on the other side of the door had been moving, but that was about the extent of her observations. She was more than pleased when the person on the other side had answered their call and opened the door a crack, a slightly confused expression on his face.

"Sorry, we're not open until-" Naoto cut him off very quickly by flashing her badge. It wasn't a REAL badge, so to speak; just something that authorized her to act on behalf of the Inaba police force where she needed. Regardless of what it was though, the bartender got the implications almost immediately and shut his trap. Cops showing up at your door are never a good thing, especially when you work at a club. Crazy shit happens there on a regular basis after all.

"My apologies for the interruption sir; I am Naoto Shirogane, Private Investigator for the Inaba police force. The three of us would like to ask you a few questions about some proceedings that took place here last night, if you would indulge us." Naoto politely, but officially introduced herself to the bartender, requesting access inside to conduct her questionings and investigations. The bartender sighed as he opened the door to let the three in.

The club looked a lot different with all the lights off; like some dull, dirty cellar or something. It was certainly an interesting sight anyway, but that's not what Justin was looking around for. He was looking for anything that could give the group a clue as to what had gone down here. He wasn't having much luck yet, but then, he hadn't checked upstairs yet. And he wasn't going to until they settled all the business they had here. Naoto approached the counter that the bartender had been working at earlier, allowing him to go back to his work while she asked him some questions.

"My apologies for interrupting your work, but this is of the upmost importance." Naoto tried to reassure the slightly panicked bartender. You could tell he wasn't in the mood for this shit today. He just wanted to get his work done today. He was just an average guy trying to make a living after all, he didn't want to get mixed up in criminal shenanigans. "I'll get straight to the point. Last night some of my associates and I had reservations in the room upstairs. To make a long story short, we can say without reason of a doubt that the drinks had been spiked with alcohol." That certainly stopped the bartender in his tracks. Since he was the one to handle the drinks, that would make him suspect numero uno; and he didn't think he was a fan of that. "We'd like any assistance you can offer on the matter. Any suspicious persons, anyone who might have had the access needed to slip something into the beverages before they were served?"

"We don't serve alcohol here." The bartender brushed off Naoto without really answering the question. It was painfully obvious to everyone present he was sidestepping the issue; and that only turned to make them rather suspicious. They hadn't even suspected the guy until he started this shit with refusing to answer their inquiries. It's not hard evidence or anything, but you could almost see Justin giving the guy the stinker eye from half way across the room, head twisted to the side and body bent over a table as he searched for any clues. Naoto glared at the bartender for a moment before adjusting her hat.

"…Yes, I believe you stated that when we talked before." Naoto remarked with bitter sarcasm, annoyed that it seemed the bartender had no intention of really cooperating. The bartender twisted his head off to the side, as though examining Naoto closer. Seemed he had forgotten talking to her the night before, prior to the investigation team showing up. "Regardless of this establishment's policies regarding alcohol; there was most certainly foul play involved. The drinks were most certainly spiked with an alcoholic substance; not a doubt in my mind. Now, I'll ask again; is there anyone here that might have been able to tamper with the drinks?" Naoto questioned a little more forcefully this time. The bartender sighed, shaking his head as he leaned on the counter.

"Well… There was that new guy. He doesn't really come in much, but I think he was on shift last night…" The bartender rubbed his chin a bit. Honestly, this guy almost never showed up, so it was kind of hard for him to remember if he was here. Not to mention it was incredibly obvious to the guy that he obviously didn't want to be here when he did. But alas, money was money, and when you had the needs that guy did, you need as much money as you can get.

"Could you give me a detailed description of this person?" Naoto requested, finally feeling as though she was getting somewhere. A worker that almost never showed up would hardly be suspected for drugging drinks. He probably hadn't even been there the night of, or so the employees would think. It was by all means a clever disguise. But not clever enough. The bartender scratched at his head as though to closer examine his memories for anything that could help him remember.

"I don't really know much; all my work's up front here, you see." The bartender sighed a bit with defeat. "The best I could tell you is a couple of rumors." The bartender shrugged. Naoto sighed a bit; rumors were barely enough evidence to track a person down on. She'd ask for perhaps some employee records, but obviously this man wasn't the owner of the establishment, and thus didn't have access to that information. She eventually nodded a bit, figuring a rumor was better than nothing in every regard. "I heard the guy was a bit of a troublemaker; like he didn't want to work here or something. I think he only comes her because he has to. From what I've heard, he looks really sick. Like, he's always hacking up a lung or something. Other than that though, I don't really know."

"…Is there perhaps someone you know who works here who could give a more detailed description, or a name perhaps?" Naoto questioned. Really, being a sick renegade wasn't much to go on. Even something like hair color or eye color might have helped her narrow it down. But it seemed at the moment all she had was class evidence, circumstances that could apply to way too many people for her to question in a mere few hour period. The bartender shook his head a bit, though not necessarily in denial.

"Only the part-time workers; but I don't really know where you could get a hold of them now." The bartender continued. "…Though… I'm not sure if he could really help you, but there's a security outpost near the end of the mall. Officer Kurosawa usually keeps tabs on everyone. Perhaps he could help you?" The bartender tried to reason. You could practically see a wave of relief wash over Naoto. Perfect; an officer of the law might be exactly who they needed to help them right now. He'd cooperate with Naoto easier anyway. Hopefully. Last Justin heard from Adachi, Dojima REALLY didn't like Naoto. At all. Hopefully most cops didn't share that outlook on her.

"Thank you for your cooperation, you've been very helpful." Naoto remarked before turning about for the door. Yosuke and Justin passed her a funny look behind her back, curious why she was leaving when they could still be looking for evidence here. They hadn't even looked upstairs for Christ's sake. You know, the place where this all went down. Naoto eventually stopped though, a sudden realization hitting her. Just not the realization that PROBABLY should have hit her, but still an important realization all the same. "Oh, my apologies; you wouldn't happen to have a phone we could borrow for a moment?" Naoto turned about, requesting use of a pay-phone. The bartender shook his head.

"Nah; they don't let us make calls in here. There's a payphone outside though." The cashier informed them.

"…I see. You have my gratitude." Naoto finished before turning back around to walk out of the club for good this time. Yosuke and Justin shook their heads at each other with disappointment before following her out. After all, unlike Naoto, they didn't have police badges. They really shouldn't have been allowed in in the first place. Best not to push their luck. The two sighed and shrugged with defeat before following Naoto's lead out the club doors and back out into the mall. They eventually gathered out near the pay-phone, forming a triangle of sorts as they pondered their next move. "Alright; senpai. I'm shall go address Officer Kurosawa about the incident, you two stay here and try to get in contact with the others." Naoto ordered. Justin just groaned a bit. Since when was she in charge of all of this. Not that he wasn't going to do that anyway, but you know. He didn't want to give Naoto the satisfaction of seeing him bend to her whims.

"Oh gee thanks; because I was going to order a fucking pizza." Justin rolled his eyes and shook his head before leaning over to grab a hold of the phone, his other hand shuffling through his pocket for change. Naoto grunted a bit with anger, fed up with Justin's attitude about all of this. She had gone through enough humiliation at his hands over the last few days without him making an ass out of himself in public. She departed soon after that, stomping her feet slightly as she went, very clearly pissed off about this. It was a moment before Justin finally found some change and pushed it through the coin slot, punching in Yu's cell phone number. He'd call Chie's but… He wasn't sure he could handle that right now.

"You think he'll pick up?" Yosuke questioned as he listened to the phone ring, waiting with silent horror for the other line to pick up. He didn't need anything else going wrong on this trip; and he wasn't even the subject of half the horrors that Justin had woken too. He didn't fuck Naoto or know that car was stolen (though he probably put two and two together by this point in all honesty.) He hadn't earned the right to complain yet. Justin sighed as he held the payphone to his ear, tapping his foot impatiently.

"He damn well better." Justin remarked with aggravation. There was a good chance that his phone had been fucked up in the same way Yosuke's and Justin's were; in which case they had a serious problem. For all Justin knew, Yu could have woken up in a garbage can. Hell, he might have been under the bed of the hotel room they had checked out of moments ago. The two held their breath with dreadful anticipation for a moment, fearing the line wouldn't pick up. You could imagine their relief as they heard a slight click sound… then their panic when they heard how out of it Yu sounded.

"_Oh please let this be them… Hello?" _Yu spoke into the phone, hoping that his lost teammates were on the other end of the line. Sometimes not EVERYTHING turned to shit, apparently. Just the things that mattered. Yosuke and Justin both sighed with relief, hanging their heads back as the air left their lungs and entered the air again.

"Oh thank God, Yu. Is everyone alright?" Justin questioned with concern, wondering if the remaining members of the investigation team had awoken to equally horrifying atrocities they had committed. Seemed to be the case anyway, given the way Yu began shouting, speaking a thousand miles an hour as he tried to make heads and tails of what was going on. And this was coming from the guy who was almost always cool and collected; never had Justin heard Yu freaking out, and in a way, it was quite horrifying.

"_Well Kanji woke up naked in the trash outside, I apparently got a tattoo on my… uh… well that's not important. Oh yeah, and I guess we stole someone's dog or something, and it got really pissed and bit Teddie… I think it might have rabies. So no. No we're not fucking okay! Where the hell are you anyway!? Is everyone else with you?" _ Yu frantically recapped the worst of their drunken misadventures. Justin couldn't help but cringe at the thought of him getting a tattoo on his dick. That was going to be awkward if he ever wanted to have sex in the near future… Or if he wanted to get it removed. Basically it was just awkward period. Hopefully it was at least something funny, like a 'handle with care' warning.

"Yeah, Yosuke and Naoto are with me right now… Well Naoto's talking to a police officer or something… We uh… Kinda stole a car; so… yeah. We're in some deep shit." Justin grimaced. He was expecting to hear Yu smack his face over the phone. Instead all he heard was dead silence for a moment. Justin was concerned they had gotten disconnected for a moment, but it turned out that Yu had simply been shuttering with horror on his end.

"…Naoto and Yosuke? You mean Chie's not with you!?" Yu finally shouted into the phone. Within seconds Justin's skin turned deadly pale, his heart sinking deep into his chest. In fact, it actually stopped for a moment. Not metaphorically; it PHYSICALLY stopped beating for just a few seconds. He had just had a literal heart attack as Yu laid it on him that they had no idea where Chie was. And given the circumstances under which everyone had woken up, Justin had never been more afraid in his life. His pupils dilated as his grip on the phone became shaky, slowly loosening. It was only a moment later he lost control of his legs and nearly fell. Thank god Yosuke caught him on the way down, ripping the phone out of Justin's hand as he grabbed a hold of him. He heard everything; this was not good. Especially not for Justin.

"Yu, talk to me. What do you mean Chie's not with us? You don't know where she is!?" Yosuke questioned, growing increasingly frantic in his question's, Justin's body growing ever the more limper in his grasp all the while. He couldn't even stand. There were some things he couldn't take. The possibility that something absolutely awful happening to the love of his life… It had almost killed him. Once again, literally with the whole heart attack and all.

"_No! Jesus, this isn't happening. Please tell me you know where she could be…"_ Yu continued frantically speaking into the phone. As if Yosuke was going to have any idea where she could be; he was drunk after all. If Yu had no idea where she was, there was no doubt neither would he. Justin slowly tried to regain his balance, standing on his own without Yosuke's support. He was having a hard time standing on his now shaky legs, but he could still hold himself up. At least, for the moment anyway. If anything happened to Chie… Well, the implications weren't good. Justin slowly reached out to grab the phone from Yosuke's hands, much to his displeasure. Or at least until he saw that deathly pale skin tone Justin wore across his face right now.

"…Where are you…?" Justin choked up, words coming out incredibly softly into the phone as he forced himself to speak. He'd keep it as brief as possible at this point. He just wanted to find Chie and go home. That's all. Fuck the investigation about who spiked their drinks. Justin just didn't care anymore. It was just important that everyone made it home in one piece.

"_We're at the hotel. Where the hell are YO-"_

"Don't move." Justin remarked before hanging up the phone, not a word more. Yosuke just looked at Justin like he was a fucking idiot. They needed to figure out what was going on; they couldn't do that if Justin kept hanging up on Yu. Plus, Yosuke doubted Justin had anymore change on him at the moment; so much for using the payphone. He did in fact have enough change for one more call though, and he took full advantage of that, placing the change in before punching in Chie's cell-phone number. "Come on... Pick up..." Justin muttered to himself with panic as he listened to the ringtone on the other end. It was a few seconds later that he was met with the familar voice... of her message machine. His heart had skipped a beat when he heard Chie say hello, but when that was immediately followed up by the standard 'I'm not here at the moment' bullcrap. Justin hung up the phone quickly, hanging his head with fear and sorrow. He just wanted to break down and cry right now. Why? Why her? Thankfully, just at that moment Naoto returned to rejoin their company, a slight grin on her face. Seemed she had gotten the information she wanted. Not that Justin paid that any mind, he just wiped his eyes, turned and walked right past her, much to her confusion.

"I bear good news. Officer Kurosaw..a… Senpai?" Naoto questioned as Justin walked right by her, not so much as looking at her in the process. He just had on this frightful, yet determined expression on his face as he stormed by, weaving his body past the crowds, eyes never leaving his destination.

"...Shut up and get in the car."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

* * *

"You alright man?"

The car had been uncomfortably quiet for the last few minutes as Justin drove the car to the motel. He remembered the way to the mall from the motel, so he didn't need the GPS; which really kind of worked against everyone in the vehicle at the moment. They could have dealt with that annoying robot voice if it meant the car wouldn't be filled with the sound of silence. It wasn't for a long time that Yosuke spoke up, breaking the atmosphere to reach out to Justin. It was clear to him that Justin was in a lot of pain right now; from the silence to the pale skin to the frantic speed at which he drove the vehicle. Every second was precious; they had no time to waste in their search for the girl.

"I've been better." Justin brushed off the comment with slight anger. You could tell the guy didn't really want to talk. But then, when they only had a few hours left to solve the mystery, find Chie, and get on the train home, they didn't really have time for him to play the silent game. Justin sighed after a moment, taking his eyes off the road for a brief moment to turn his attention to Naoto. It was a wonder he didn't crash. "Alright, what did this Kurosawa guy say about the sus." Justin questioned casually. It was a wonder he was still keeping a sane mind about all of this, even with his heart tangled up in knots right now. Naoto cleared her throat a bit, trying to regain her composure as the awkward silent atmosphere slowly deteriorated.

"No name unfortunately, but I did manage to get a description." Naoto remarked with slight pride in her detective skills. Even though she really didn't do anything but ask a couple of questions. That's not deducing jack shit, just gathering information. "From what I've been able to gather, the suspect is a young Caucasian male, late twenties, early thirties perhaps. Yet despite his age, his hair has already grayed over." Naoto remarked describing the details she had been able to gather to the best of her ability. Alas, that was all she got as far as appearances go. Still; that certainly helped narrow out a lot of people.

"So like Yu?" Justin questioned. His hair was more silver than grey, of course; but you got the point. The hair made him look like he was aging while still maintaining the body of a teenager. It worked in his favor in a lot of ways; for one it made him look a lot more mature. Justin kind of got a gut feeling Yu was the one who had ended up getting them the vodka for that very reason. Naoto nodded a bit.

"Precisely. Now; even with a description like that, we can't truly pinpoint the suspect." Naoto remarked, perhaps taking it upon herself to be the bearer of bad news. Or perhaps she just wanted to make her findings seem more significant by saying how shitty it would be if she didn't get this information. Who would have thought Naoto of all people would be a show-off. She could barely handle being a girl; so no doubt she wasn't a fan of getting attention. Or was she? It was all so confusing. "However, Officer Kurosawa informed me that he tended to see the suspect in question in the same general area on a regular basis. I suggest we search there."

"Not like I was going to search somewhere else. Where is this place anyway?"

"That's the kicker. It's but a few blocks away from the motel." Naoto remarked, a smug grin on her face and chuckle on her voice. Who would have thought Naoto had a sense of humor? Perhaps she was realizing what a huge joke this was to the divines above. I mean, the suspect in question just HAPPENED to regular the area around where they slept? That's just too coincidental for anyone to take this serious anymore.

"Just point me there." Justin remarked, pulling one hand off the steering wheel to point out the front window. Once again, probably not a good idea coming from the guy that didn't have a driver's license. If anything, it just scared the ever living shit out of Yosuke. Eventually he was just going to have to jump out the car window and go by foot, because any longer and he might just have a heart attack. Too bad Justin beat him to the punch.

"Perhaps another time." Naoto remarked, earning a glare from Justin. _The fuck do you mean another time. We have a few hours before we have to leave, and if we don't figure this all out by then WE ARE GOING TO FUCKING JAIL. Another time my ass. No seriously, I'll get raped in jail if we try to push this off._ Of course, Justin had simply jumped the gun a bit; though could you really blame him with the way Naoto had worded that. "For the moment being, we need to regroup with the others. Once we've sorted all of that out, we can begin our investigation into the matter." Naoto continued, putting Justin's concerns at ease for the moment. He sighed, turning his glare away from Naoto and back to the road. He supposed she was right. His priorities were in places other than catching the culprit as well anyway.

With that, the car grew silent again as Justin focused his attention back to the road. It was maybe ten minutes or so of driving before he finally found his way back to the motel; and let me tell you, no one was particularly looking forward to stepping out of the car as he parked the car along the curb. I mean, maybe not Naoto, but Yosuke and Justin had heard some of the shit that went down here. They weren't looking forward to seeing if it got worse. Everyone held their breath before opening the car doors and stepping onto the concrete, making their way towards the lobby of the motel. That was another thing, they never did agree where they were going to meet up, but given that there was no sign of any of them in the motel, it was probably safe to assume they were meeting in one of the rooms.

"They're probably up in one of the rooms. Yu shared rooms with me so I've got the key if we want to check there first." Yosuke remarked, pulling his keycard out from his pocket. It was a wonder he hadn't lost it during their drunken shenanigans. Whatever those shenanigans were. It was all still pretty hazy. Hopefully someone in the hotel room remembered what was going on. Justin nodded a bit at Yosuke, and they soon took off up the stairs in search of Yu's room. It was on the first floor thankfully, so it wasn't much of a walk before Yosuke was able to slide his key in the door.

He was right about everyone being in there for the record. In fact, not only was everyone (minus Chie) there, so was the fucking dog. Apparently they hadn't gotten rid of him or anything yet. I mean, not like they should just let him loose on the streets or something, but surely they should have brought him to a kennel or something so that his owners could find him. Instead, the dog just crouched there in an aggressive position, ready to pounce at any second, snarling and barking at Teddie. Teddie, of course, was standing on the bed, post trying to avoid getting bitten again.

Aside from that however, Kanji was sitting on one of the chairs, wearing some of his winter clothes and sweating like a maniac. Seemed he hadn't found whatever clothes he lost when he fell asleep in the dumpster. He had cuts along his chin where he had probably fallen asleep on something sharp, but other than that, he seemed fine. Rise and Yukiko were sitting by the window, heads in their hands, icepacks pressed against their skulls. Seemed they had a pretty nasty hangover. They all did after all. Yu turned around as he heard the door opening, running away from his position rubbing his forehead with annoyance at the scene unfolding before him to greet the returning members of the investigation crew.

"Oh thank god you're here." Yu sighed with relief, approaching the two. He seemed completely fine; but then, that was because he was wearing his pants. How did he discover that anyway? Did he wake up pantsless like Naoto did? "Please tell me one of you knows what's going on here…" Yu begged with them for information. The three made their way inside, shaking their heads as they did, much to Yu's disappointment.

"Sorta." Justin remarked, leaning against a wall, eyes hanging low and staring at the floorboards beneath him. He was having a hard time looking people in the eye today; especially after all the shit they had apparently done. "Best I recall, we all got drunk, played King's game, and… well shit just went down from there. The details are fuzzy." Justin sighed. "We do know the drinks were spiked though, and we believe we have a suspect."

"Is that really important right now?" Yukiko questioned from across the room, flinching in pain a bit as her hangover intensified from the sound of her voice. She sounded really out of it; more so than the others anyway. She was probably worrying about Chie just as much as Justin was. Well… Maybe a little less; last Justin checked, her heart didn't stop beating at any point with concern. Not that he really knew that's what happened. All he remembered was his chest hurting like a bitch, his muscles loosening, his breathing becoming harder to accomplish. Justin nodded his head a bit.

"Yeah… Yeah it is. We uh… accidentally committed grand theft auto…" Justin grimaced a bit. By this point, everyone had been used to this crazy shit happening, just throwing their arms in the air as though to say 'oh fan-fucking-tastic, more shit to fuck everything up.' Rise sighed and shook her head as her arms dropped back down to her side, clearly disappointed in the outcome of last night… And also revealing the lack of hair on the back of her skull. Seemed someone had shaved it at some point, various patches of hair simply gone, revealing the skin underneath. "If we don't get the guy, we're looking at some hard time. And besides; he might know something about where Chie is, right?" Justin tried to reason with everyone. Though they were much too busy holding their heads in pain as the dog started to bark again.

"God, will someone shut that fucking thing up!" Kanji finally shouted with great anger and irritation, eyes wide with fury as the barking echoed through his ears. He wasn't sure which was worse, the dog being loud as fuck, or Teddie screaming and jumping around with fear everytime the dog snarled at him. Which was always. Goddamn, it was just a bite, chill the fuck out. Justin groaned, rubbing his own head with pain as his eyes fell on the dog in front of him. It was a white shiba-inu, and for some reason, it was wearing someone's T-shirt. Seemed someone had left their clothes lying around (most likely Kanji) and the dog had taken that opportunity to slip into it. Props to the dog for figuring out how sleeves worked. Justin sighed before making his way over to the dog and leaning over.

"Hey there big guy." Justin remarked, crouching on his knee before extending his hand to pet the dog, hoping to calm him down. Instead, the dog just turned around and bit him. Justin quickly ripped his hand out of the dog's grip, ripping away skin and flesh in the process. His hand was bleeding pretty bad by the time he got it out, and the dog's aggression seemed to shift towards Justin. "Son of a bitch! Where the fuck did you get this dog!?" Justin questioned shaking his hand as he tried to numb the pain. He was also cautiously trying to extend the gap between him and the dog, who was slowly trying to narrow said gap. Clearly the dog saw Justin as some sort of threat.

"We have no idea…" Kanji moaned, shaking his head as he grasped his temples with his hands. This was all just so horrible. He didn't even remember drinking that much. He could have sworn he stopped after Justin pointed out that the drinks were alcoholic. Perhaps he had a change of heart somewhere along the line. Whatever the reason, Kanji had done some pretty stupid shit while he was not in control of his actions. Same could be said of everyone else. Where did Yu even find someone willing to tattoo his dick? And shouldn't that hurt?

"We need to get this thing out of here!" Yu barked, more than annoyed with how vicious the dog seemed to be towards… well… everyone. Though to be fair, he only seemed to be pissed at Justin and Teddie. The dog didn't really stare the others down the way he was those two, and they had no problem getting around the dog without him trying to bite them. Justin and Teddie could not say the same. Naoto stared at the dog for a moment, rubbing her chin.

"…Not just yet." Naoto remarked after a moment, apparently oblivious to the fact that the dog had just leapt at Justin a second time. In fact, there was a little bit of a scuffle with Justin jumping up on furniture, trying to dodge the dog trying to maul him. Thankfully it seemed the dog wasn't very good at jumping, or if he was, he was in no mood to jump, simply stopping as Justin balanced precariously on a chair. It was a lot harder than it sounded. "Perhaps this canine could prove useful."

"…Are we already stooping to the suicide pact?" Rise questioned, only slightly sarcastic. By this point, she would almost gladly accept a suicide pact to save herself from the embarrassment. Regardless, it was clear using this dog for any purpose other than getting themselves killed would be without fruition. What the hell kind of drug was Naoto on right now that she thought this dog could be useful. Well, besides whatever liquor was still in her system.

"Canines have a natural affinity for tracking down objects based on scent. The police use them for helping them locate drugs, objects… or missing persons." Naoto explained. Everyone's eyes widened a bit. Of course; they could get the dog to help them find Chie by tracking her scent, right? Why hadn't they thought of it sooner? Of course, that plan was all well and good, but there was pretty obvious flaw in how they would go about executing it. "Of course… We'll need to subdue it somehow first. He'll be of no use to us in his current mindset." Naoto remarked, pondering the matter.

"How the hell are we supposed to calm this thing down!?" Yosuke shouted. He hadn't been here as long as the others, so perhaps he didn't really see enough to say definitively that it was impossible, but he had witnessed enough to see it was going to be very difficult at the very least. Justin rubbed at the stubble around his chin as he stared at the dog below him, pondering the matter. His hand was still bleeding, and he got the feeling the smell of blood was only inciting the dog more. This wasn't the best idea they had ever had. The dog would probably try to murder them all midway through their search. Justin still had his gun for the record; and he wasn't afraid to put the thing down if need be. It would be self-defense after all, nothing illegal about that. Except for the part where they stole it in the first place of course. Justin continued to stare at the beast staring him down when a sudden bolt of inspiration hit him. He quickly turned his attention over to Yu, who had been sitting on the bed now that the dog had stopped trying to pounce on it.

"Yu, throw me your cell-phone." Justin shouted. Yu just passed him a funny look, like he was crazy to think he was going to toss it over with that thing watching Justin. If he dropped it, or the dog took it as an invitation to play fetch, that was it. It was over. "Just fucking do it." Yu sighed before tossing his phone over. The dog did try to jump up and catch it, but luckily Justin got it first… Along with another bite to the arm in the process. The blood was leaking out at a slightly concerning rate at this point, but Justin didn't care. Yeah, he felt a little light-headed, but he'd make it. He quickly flipped the phone open before punching in a few numbers and pressing the plastic piece of technology to his ear. The atmosphere was tense as they waited for the other end of the line to pick up.

"…_Hello?"_

"Oh thank god; she picked up." Justin informed the others, holding his palm to the bottom of the phone so she couldn't hear. He didn't need to panic her just yet. Everyone nodded with relief, though they still didn't know who Justin was calling, though it probably should have been obvious to them immediately. Justin sighed before pressing the phone back to his ear. "Maya; how fast can you get on a train down here?"

"_Train? What- Justin, I'm on shift. I don't have time for this." _Maya remarked with annoyance. She wanted to come with them sure, but this was the last day of the trip. She wasn't going to get on a train ride just to show up for an hour then get back on the train home. It wasn't worth it just to feel less alone. Besides, she was dealing with enough shit over there without leaving during her shift.

"Maya; we're in REAL deep shit." Justin tried to stop her from hanging up. She just sighed a bit into the cell-phone, waiting to see what this was about. She doubted it was anything she needed to come down there to help with. "We went to a club last night and ordered some sodas, but someone spiked the drinks and we all got real drunk, and, and… We lost Chie. We fucking lost her Maya." Justin's words became more and more frantic as he went on. In retrospect, he probably shouldn't have been the one to be recapping this to Maya. His mentality just wasn't in the right place for that shit. Still, it probably helped convince Maya in the long run.

"_Whoa, whoa, calm down Justin." _She frantically spoke into the line trying to calm Justin down. It was quiet for a moment as they both regained their composure. _"…Ask Yosuke if he can cover my bases if I leave early." _Maya requested, hoping to avoid getting in trouble for this. Justin turned his attention over to Yosuke, knowing very well he could hear the conversation. They all could, Yu's phone was loud as fuck for some inexplicable reason. It was like the guy was deaf in one ear.

"I've got her covered."

"He say's your good." Justin repeated for Maya's sake, since she obviously couldn't hear from that far away. "Please… We kind of stole a dog when we were drunk, and we think we can get him to track her scent; but the thing tries to rip one of our arms off anytime we get near it. You're good with animals; you can help right?" Justin laid out his plans for her. It was quiet for a moment as the fact that everyone had stolen a dog really sunk into Maya's mind. What kind of fucking stupid things had they gotten involved in?

"_I…guess? I think you're giving me too much credit." _Maya remarked modestly. Sure, she liked animals, and generally animals tended to like her, but it wasn't like she was some sort of animal messiah that could bend the will of dogs at a flick of her finger. But then, she supposed that she was the only expert they had in the field, so to speak. She sighed in to the phone. _"I'll try; I can't really gurantee anything though."_

"That's all I'm asking."

"_Alright, alright. I'm leaving now. With any luck I can catch the next train before it departs… Hang in there, Justin." _Maya remarked with pity and sympathy. She could only imagine what he was going through right now. The tone in his voice only suggested he had been afraid. Afraid of what, Maya didn't understand. But then, she hadn't seen what the group had been up to in their drunken misadventures. If she did, she'd change her tone right away. She sighed before clicking the phone shut, followed by Justin doing the same, tossing the phone over to Yu.

"She's on her way now." Justin sighed with slight relief. Hopefully the dog fell for Maya's charms just like any other animal, and didn't just bite her the way he had him. Everyone nodded a bit, understanding that they may have found a solution to their problem, trying to calm their nerves as they convinced themselves their problems were over now.

"If she's on her way, there's no real use in us simply standing here and waiting." Naoto interrupted the self-assuring atmosphere, with an officious tone and plan. "I propose we split up. Justin, Yosuke, and I shall continue our pursuit of the subject. One of you should go pick Miss Jefferies up and bring her here. And Teddie should continue to distract the dog for the moment being." Naoto ordered. Teddie just jumped back in horror, most certainly objecting to the idea. He never agreed to be a distraction, why would he.

"Wha-!? Don't leave me with him!" Teddie begged and shouted. Naoto just waved him off, not really giving the slightest damn. Sacrifices needed to be made to insure that dog stayed in place. A chew toy should more than occupy the pouch.

"What's that? Sorry, couldn't hear you. In a rush." Naoto frantically ignored Teddie before rushing out the door with Justin and Yosuke, closing the door behind her to drown out the sound of Teddie's screaming. And also to keep the dog in, but she doubted that would be a problem. The three pressed up against the door in a barricade, just in case Teddie tried to break out. And what do you know he did; pounding away at the door trying to break out before getting chased back off by the dog, probably bitten too. As the door finally stopped shaking with the sensation of Teddie trying to break out, the three couldn't help but sigh with relief. Hell, Justin actually started to laugh. Who would have thought that Naoto would lock an innocent in a room with a rabid dog just to have a distraction. He still didn't like her, but at least he could honestly say she didn't have a stick so far up her ass that her view of morality were wooden and stiff. Plus, it was always good fun watching Teddie get his just deserts; even if he technically hadn't done anything yet. He'd do something eventually though to warrant this.

"You know Naoto, you're a bastard after my own heart." Justin admitted as the three pushed themselves away from the door. He didn't want Naoto to get the idea that he liked her or anything like that, but goddamn, it was moments like this that made him forget she had accused him of being a murderer. Naoto passed him a disapproving, slightly embarrassed glance.

"I believe that's half the problem."

"I still think you're a bitch though."

"That would be the other half."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

* * *

"This the place?"

The trio had been walking around, opting to leave the car behind since the place was in walking distance, and let's be serious: would you drive around in a stolen car if you really didn't need to? Regardless, the place was not too far away from the train station, actually, so if time permitted, they just might be able to meet up with Maya when they were done with their business here. Call it a hunch, but Naoto got the feeling that the guy they were looking for was their culprit; and if he was here… Well, game over. They'd just cuff him, ask him anything he might know about Chie's whereabouts, then work from there. Hopefully everything would be sorted out by lunch. Not that anyone had any intention of eating, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, as I was saying, the place wasn't too far off from the train station; a couple alleyways away in fact. Seemed kind of cliché to Justin that the big villain, the man in charge, the scumbag with the evil plan, had been hanging around in an alleyway, but alas, he could live with the clichés, so long as everything turned out alright in the end. The place was dark and grimy, wallpaper tearing off the buildings beside them, puddles of liquids Justin could only guess was oddly colored piss, and quite a few angry looking rats. Justin would be surprised if he walked out of here without rabies. Probably didn't help that he had already got bitten by a rabid dog twice in the last hour.

"If the directions I received from Officer Kurosawa are correct, yes." Naoto confirmed, eyes darting around as they navigated the old beaten down alleyways in search of their culprit. In an isolated place like this and with a description like that, it should be easy to pinpoint him, get their information, and get out. Justin sighed as his eyes rolled over all the sights. In a way, it made him a bit nostalgic for his old hang out spot in California. Sitting with his and Maya's backs against the wall, the dumpster beside them cleverly hiding their cigarettes from the world, the odd odor that filled the air from time to time. It was all so terrible; but in a way he missed it. Reminded him of some pretty good times. Also reminded him of some shitty times too, but he supposed the good outweighed the bad in a lot of ways.

It wasn't very long before the group had navigated the maze of alleyways in search of human life. Of course, while they were only expecting one person (it was an alleyway after all) they instead found a whole plethora of people, mostly in their twenties. You could already tell by the looks of their clothing that they weren't exactly the most desirable kind of people the hang about with. Mostly trouble makers from the looks of it. The three's eyes darted about as they cautiously entered the alleyway, in search of anyone who matched the description. They were unfortunately met with no luck in the field. No one here had any of the features the suspect was described as possessing.

As they stood there examining the figures though, the delinquents slowly began to take notice to the three very clearly out of place teenagers. Well Yosuke and Naoto anyway; Justin probably could have passed for being amongst their ranks with the way he dressed and the way his hair swept across his eye. Mostly to hide some scars, but regardless of the intention, kind of made him look like an emo in a lot of ways. Guess that was what the cool kids did these days…? Still, you could tell no one was very much pleased by the interruption; especially not by the boy detective wonder here.

"The hell are you doing here? You get lost walking home from school or something?" One of the thugs spoke up after a while. The three's expressions soon shifted to an angered glare. Why did they get a feeling something very bad was about to go down? I mean, sure, Naoto and Yosuke were wearing their uniform, but they doubted these guys had the best of intentions pointing that out. It was very clearly intended as mockery. The delinquents slowly jumped up from their seats along the railings, and stairs, and trash, gathering about the three almost in a circle. Yeah, shit was definitely going to go down. Justin crossed his arms a bit, trying to make it clear that he didn't feel threatened. None of them did really; Justin and Yosuke fought fucking shadows on a regular basis. A couple of thugs? No problem. Naoto… Well she worked with the police. Surely she knew a thing or two about subduing a suspect, right?

"You're in the wrong part of town." Another thug mocked as he circled around the alleyway. This one wasn't joining the others in the circle, more than satisfied being simply an observer apparently. Justin just rolled his eyes a bit; the sooner they got their information, the sooner Justin wouldn't have to deck someone. A shame too, because honestly, these seemed his kind of people. Minus the whole being assholes part; and even then, that was kind of debatable.

"Or the right part." Justin remarked, tilting his head off to the side for a brief moment, as though cracking his neck. "The guy with the gray hair. Where is he?" Justin remarked bluntly and aggressively, but to the point. The thugs just seemed to get a kick out of Justin's demands for information though, clearly not seeing him as a threat of any kind. To be fair, Justin was a pretty scrawny guy; but oh boy, could he hit when he got pissed. Plus, he had a gun. Gun's hit hard. Justin wins, the end, show's over.

"Oh wouldn't you like to know." The first thug remarked snidely again, a mischievous grin on his face. Though that slowly started to fade as his eyes drifted over to Yosuke. His calm and cool demeanor slowly shifted to one of rage and anger. "Hey wait a second, isn't that that cokehead from earlier?" The thug questioned eyeing Yosuke. Yosuke just passed everyone a confused look. He wasn't into cocaine, as much as he'd hate to burst that thug's bubble. Justin rubbed at his chin a bit, something about that remark struck him as a bit o-

…

_Oh shit, the white powder from earlier! That was… Oh shit!_

"Yosuke… What did you do?" Justin remarked with slight panic. It all made sense now; that shit that was all over Yosuke's face was cocaine… but… Where did he get it, and what the hell had he done while he was coked out of his mind? Yosuke almost seemed offended by the question though. He wasn't THAT stupid, he'd have you know. Or stupid at all; but Justin would beg to differ on that, so he figured it was best not to stir up the hive on that matter. Especially when they were being threatened by a gang. Almost all eyes had fallen on Yosuke at this point, that look of dismissal towards the issue on his face all the while. He honest to god didn't think he snorted that shit, when the evidence had literally been right under his nose the whole while.

"Nothing. I don't do drugs." Yosuke responded with slight annoyance. Could they sort this shit out when they weren't being surrounded by thugs. Naoto and Justin passed each other a quick glance; and in a brief moment, it seemed they could almost read each other's thoughts on the issue. Or perhaps it was just that they had been thinking the same thing all along. Oh it was clear to both of them that Yosuke was not above the influence. In fact, he was REALLY far below it; I mean cocaine? He couldn't have scored weed or something. Next you'll be telling them he drunk heroine out of a firehose… Actually, that sounded like something someone would do when they were that wasted; so maybe Justin should keep his mouth shut 'lest that turn out to be the case.

"Yeah… Hey yeah; and weren't those twos with 'im?" One of the others spoke up in a very strangely out of place Brooklyn accent. Last Justin checked, they were in Japan; how do you even have an accent like that here. Well to be fair, he obviously had a Californian accent, mixed with just a hint of British. He shouldn't be nit picking. All the same, seemed whatever it was Yosuke had done, they were there with him. "Where's that black-haired broad? Busy setting someone else's car on fire?" He interrogated the group aggressively. The three just slowly turned to each other, a grimace on each of their face. Looked like Justin wasn't the only pyromaniac.

"So… we stole one car… and set another on fire. No, no, that's… that's just fantastic." Justin muttered, grimacing with despair as it slowly began to sink in just how much destruction and chaos they had created. He was only surprised it hadn't started to rain cats and dogs. He sighed before turning back to the thugs. Was kind of hard to be pissed at them when you know they all clearly did something they shouldn't have. They DID completely destroy someone's ride apparently. "Look, if you just tell us where to find this guy, we can all be out of each other's hair."

"I don't think so." The thug that had been pacing around began to speak. "Let's recap for a second here. You three and that other bitch came here on 'business.'" The thug made finger quotes as he spoke, making it incredibly obvious what kind of business they were here for. "This asshole over here decides to sample some of it, goes apeshit, breaking everything, tried to suck Akimoto's dick-" Justin and Naoto slowly turned to Yosuke to pass him a disgusted and horrified look. Yosuke just seemed bewildered, a pale green shade to his face as he tried to hold back vomit. He didn't know what was going on with this drug shit, but the thought of him giving some random thug a blowjob was not sitting well with his stomach. If you needed any reason to stay away from drugs for the rest of your life, this was it. "…and then that other bitch thinks it'd be funny to leak the gasoline from my car and set it on fire. And you want us to help YOU?" The thug stopped pacing about for a moment, crouching over as though to pick something up from the ground. Justin eyed him cautiously as he stood back up, slowly making his way back to the crowd. "Heh… Up yours!"

As he shouted, the ring opened up a bit to allow the thug to dash inside, revealing the object he had picked up to be a metal pipe. The three were caught off guard, and before anyone could even react, he took a swing of the pipe at Justin, smacking him across the skull and knocking him to the ground. Yosuke backed up with cautious fear, trying to narrow the distance between the thugs and him. To just down Justin like that… These guys meant business; and he had no intention of doing business with this three anymore.

"Senpai! Are you alright?" Naoto shouted, getting on a knee to try and help Justin back up to his feet. He was on his knees, struggling to hold himself up from the ground with his arms, body shaking, blood spreading from the now open wound on the side of his skull. At first she was concerned he was shaking because he was losing blood too fast, or that he was sincerely hurt. In actuality, it was merely that he was angry. Very angry. He slowly lifted his eyes from the pavement below him, eyes glowing a sinister golden color. It was a very rare occasion that he let the shadow that lived inside his skull come out to play; it was always a dangerous move. You see, Justin had made a deal with the devil when he had confronted his shadow, offering himself as a human vessel in exchange for what the shadow knew about the case. Now as a result, anytime Justin got angry, too angry to fight back the shadow's desires, the shadow came out. And let me tell you, he was one sinister bastard. It was very rarely safe when his shadow immerged from the depths of his mind. This might be one of the rare occasions where the demon in his head having some fun might help them. A sinister smirk began to cross Justin's face, pleasure in his eyes as he examined all of his soon to be victims.

"…**Wrong move." **The last trace of humanity in the shadow's voice remarked before being swallowed completely by the demonic entity of Justin's shadow. Naoto backed away a bit, confused by the sudden transition in his eye color, the echo in his voice. Yosuke had seen this transformation several times… Naoto? Naoto wasn't really THERE when this first became a problem. And after that Justin learned to control himself. The fact that she was seeing this meant that someone had fucked up real bad. Though whether it was the thugs or him that had screwed up was highly debatable. Still, this was a bit of a frightening sight to anyone who wasn't aware of his condition. The thugs included.

"What the hell…!?" One thug questioned, confused by the golden tone of Justin's eyes, where a light blue shade had been but moments earlier. Despite just being smacked upside the head with a pipe, he almost seemed happy. And the shadow was; happy to have control of his legs and arms again, happy to cause some chaos on the humans that had made his life a living hell in the shadow world.

"**Nice pipe you got there. Would look better up your ass." **The shadow mocked, chuckling mischievously to himself. The thug stared with frightened eyes for a moment before donning his aggressive posture and stance again, swiftly attempting to beat Justin down a second time with the pipe. No dice. Within a swift continuous movement, the shadow caught a hold of the pipe, latching it out of his hand, spinning about as he moved to a standing position, and swinging the pipe full force into the thugs head. The pipe bent as the thug went flying down to the ground from the blow. **"Homerun!" **The shadow laughed. The thug groaned in pain, unable to move, but still very much conscious.

"Gah… g-get them!" The downed thug shouted at the rest of the thugs. They all seemed rather reluctant to follow that order, but after a deep breath or two, they eventually adopted a fighting stance, ready to take the three on in melee combat. Naoto and Yosuke slowly adopted a fighting stance of their own, Naoto's seeming more defensive with the way her arms were raised, Yosuke's more aggressive with the way he kept his fists balled up by his side. The shadow smirked a bit dropping the pipe with smug pride, as though to claim he didn't need it. And he probably didn't.

"**Wrong part of town huh? Funny, last I checked this was MY city."** The shadow mocked before raising his arm, making a gesture of his hand daring the thugs to make the first move. They were happy to oblige, one of them darting out to punch him. The shadow deflected the punch with a quick movement of his hand, before kneeing him in the stomach, and tossing the now stunned individual over his shoulder like a ragdoll to the sidewalk behind him. Naoto and Yosuke had to side step the body as it came crashing down, backing up into a few thugs in the process. Naoto quickly deflected the attacks that were coming here way, not really striking back, but most certainly protecting herself. Yosuke just took the damage as he charged in fists wailing.

Punches and kicks were thrown left and right between the three parties. Justin was doing a hell of a job taking thugs down, dodging punches and countering them with his own like he had been choreographing this for weeks. At one point some guy actually busted out a switch blade, trying to thrust it down into his abdomen, stopping the shadow in his tracks. Instead, he was only met by the shadow catching the bastard's arm mid thrust, snapping it back and breaking the bone, then pushing the now frail, unmovable arm into his ballsack. Yes, Justin neutered that thug in one swift movement. After that, most of the other thugs were very cautious about using any weapons they might find.

Naoto was holding up fairly well, still deflecting blows with her arms every which way. It wasn't for a while that she found an opening in the enemies attacks though, grabbing one by the arm and flipping him over, while mule kicking the other in the stomach to keep him at bay while she was mid toss. Then as she finished slamming the other to the ground, she turned back, and without so much as looking at the thug she had kicked in the gut, back handed him with her fist, knocking him slowly, but cleanly to a messy heap on the ground. One strike to the head was all it took to cut a man down to size it seemed.

Yosuke, wasn't doing very well in the regard of defending himself, engaging in fisticuffs with his opponent. For every punch he took, he returned one back even harder. It wasn't long before he managed to get a good shot in on one of his assailants, knocking him to the ground, but by the time he had taken one thug down, he was already bruised, battered and weak. He wasn't going to stand much of a chance against the other, who was now poising, ready to strike. Thank fully Naoto had finished off with her foes and dived in, deflecting a blow on Yosuke's behalf and leaving an opening for him, where he punched the fucker in the face, knocking him backwards and into a wall.

"Thanks, man." Yosuke gasped for air as the two finished dispatching their attackers, bending over his knees and taking deep breaths as he tried to maintain his composure. There was no doubt that fighting off so many people was becoming strenuous, wearing at their energy levels. The two stopped for a moment gathering their breath, as the shadow Justin continued holding off his attackers. Even an aggressive fuck like Justin and his even worse shadow couldn't hold those thugs off forever though; he was just one man of course. He had slowly stopped dropping these thugs like flies, moving from the offensive to the defensive, as he struggled to hold off the hoard. There were only two left by this point, but he didn't have much energy left, and that was very clear to everyone watching right now.

"Let's not let our guard down just yet." Naoto remarked, gesturing with her head over to the ongoing fight on the other end of the alleyway. She had considered just pulling out her gun and firing a warning shot in the air, but that would no doubt draw unwanted attention. After all, Justin did just kind of shove a switchblade into some guy's dick. He was down for the count. They didn't need to get slowed down when they already had so little time left to accomplish what they needed to. No, they were going to have to do this the old fashioned way: with police brutality. The two briskly started to walk up to where Justin had been backing away from the thugs, hoping to regain some energy, before breaking out into a bit of a jog. "Justin-senpai; duck."

Justin seemed almost confused by the order at first, but he eventually figured out what was going on anyway. The shadow smirked, making a ridiculous shrug of his shoulders as though to say 'not your lucky day.' The thugs were confused at first, but Justin quickly dropped down to his knee, revealing the rushing figures coming at them. Within a split second, the two had their feet on Justin's back, using him as a support to jump out at the two thugs, with Naoto delivering a kick straight to one's face and Yosuke tackling the other to the ground hard. And with that the show was over. Justin stood up from his position on the ground as the two admired their handiwork, as Naoto adjusted her hat that had come somewhat loose from the scuffle. He dusted his shirt off and cracked his back a bit from being a human pedestal, a wide smirk still on his face. **"I hope they have a chiropractor around here."**

"Thankfully that's all over with." Naoto mused examining their handiwork. This was not exactly the kind of police work she wanted to get involved with. She was brains, not brawn after all. But then, maybe she had been expecting something like this to happen eventually; otherwise she wouldn't have trained herself in self-defense. She sighed as her eyes fell back on Justin, who was now gripping his head in pain, struggling to stand, but doing so with the assistance of Yosuke. His human side was slowly creeping back, his emotions having finally stopped going haywire. He shook his head a bit, opening his eyes to reveal their normal blue color. He thanked Yosuke with a quick nod and wave of his hand, slowly regaining his balance. "May I inquire as to what… that was?" Naoto questioned, still very much at a loss of words.

"Oh, uh… that… Medical condition. Nothing you need to concern yourself with." Justin rubbed at his neck nervously as he slowly walked away. At first it looked like he was leaving, but in actuality he was looking for the still conscious thug that had tried to smack him upside the head with a pipe. Naoto just shook her head and sighed. There was no medical condition that did that. Something was definitely funny about this. She got the feeling that Justin wasn't doing it on purpose though, given how embarrassed he seemed, how painful the transition looked as he snapped back to humanity. Whatever that was that he was doing, it didn't seem like it was a willing transition. And that only served to confuse her. She sighed before following Justin and Yosuke's lead, crouching down in front of the now panicking leader of this little operation. "Hey there buddy. Thought you were going to pull a fast one, huh?" Justin laughed in the thugs face before extending his hand out to slap him. "Fuck you. Now this time when I ask for information, you're going to tell me. Now, where the fuck is he?"

"I-I don't know. He just comes here from time to time, we don't know what he does when he leaves!" The thug frantically pleaded, very much afraid of the presence he was in right now. Justin grunted with anger, almost ready to strike him again. But alas, it was very clear the guy was scared out of his wit's ends of Justin; he wasn't lying when he said that. Justin looked about biting his bottom lip with anger as he tried to suppress cries of anger at their lack of success. He eventually leaned back over.

"And the brunette that was with us? What do you know about her?"

"What brunette? There's wasn't any brunette with you!" Justin shook his head with anger. This was all just a dead end. They learned nothing but that Yosuke had a weakness to cocaine and Yukiko was a pyromaniac. He let go of his grip on the thug's shirt for a moment, pure rage flowing through him. He looked like he wanted to strangle someone.

"Goddammit…" Justin mumbled to himself, sorrow and frustration in his voice. How was it that she had just disappeared without a trace, just missing as though she had never existed. Dammit, this was the kind of thing he always said he'd protect her from. He had betrayed her in more than one way today; his heart couldn't take it anymore. Sympathetic eyes fell upon him as he sat there, trying to hold back all the anger and sadness. Hell, Naoto had never thought Justin could cry, but he sure as hell looked like he was about to.

"Senpai..." Naoto began to speak, almost feeling his plight right now. She had never felt worse for the boy she had despised so much in the weeks prior. Perhaps she had never really realized he was just as human as the rest of them. He just hid his feelings in a sub-human way. "It'll be alright senpai; Miss Jefferies has no doubt already arrived, we'll use the canine to track her down with ease... You... do have something that belongs to her, correct?"

"Y-yeah." Justin sighed, lifting his arm up to show off a colorful wristband; the same one Chie had given him as a token of their friendship, of their love... It was quiet for a moment as Justin was absorbed in his thoughts and worries. This all seemed so unfair; not to him, but to Chie. Why must she suffer for his mistakes? "...You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up in a second..."

"Justin-senpai..." Naoto sighed, almost pained by the pitiful state the agressive punk had been reduced to. This was a sight she'd never think to see in a million years. Quite frankly she didn't think she wanted to see it. She was going to speak up on the matter when she saw Justin's hand creeping over to the pipe from earlier. "...What are you doing?"

"I said this lead pipe would look good up his ass and I meant it. Pull 'em down."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

* * *

"Christ, you guys look really fucked up."

The three had made it back to the motel after walking for what felt like decades. They were exhausted after kicking the shit out of all those thugs in the alleyway, which only served to make the walk back stretch on into eternity. They were all looking forward to the comfort of chairs once they returned. Save maybe Justin who would probably have to balance on one to get away from that dog. The three sighed, making their way into the room, eyes searching about the room for any sign of Maya. She was here alright, crouched down and stroking the dog's fur with the tips of her fingernails. And she said she didn't have a way with animals; this was practically a miracle. The three soon found something to lean against or sit on to relieve the tension on their tired feet.

"You mean more fucked up than before right?" Justin remarked sarcastically, letting out a deep sigh as he sat down on a free chair. The dog was eyeing him with aggressive eyes from across the room, but at the moment, it seemed he was much too preoccupied getting his fur rubbed to give chase. Thank god. Justin had shed enough blood today as it was; he didn't need any more of this shit. Yu rolled his eyes a bit; it was pretty clear that's what he meant. After all, they were ALL fucked up right about now.

"Well basically we went to this place Naoto was talking about and we all got jumped by a bunch of thugs. You should have seen it; Justin shoved a pipe up one of their asses." Yosuke recapped for everyone that had not been present at the scene. A lot of funny looks soon fell on Yosuke, not entirely believing that last part of the speech. That seemed kind of unnecessary, no matter which way you put it. And also really, really, disgusting. Given how weak of a stomach Justin had, it seemed like something he'd try to avoid at all costs.

"Uh… You mean figuratively, right?" Kanji questioned from his spot on the bed, sniffling a bit. Sleeping naked in a dumpster tended to have the effect of being really fucking cold, even in the fall. As a result, he had certainly caught something. There was a good chance that it didn't stop at the cold either; I mean, he WAS lying on top of trash. He probably got tetanus or some shit. Justin shook his head a bit, leaning forward a little bit.

"No. No he doesn't." Justin replied, bluntly and to the point. Jaws slowly began to drop, glances being thrown every which way. This was a joke right? It had to be; there was just no possible explanation for why anyone would be compelled to do that. Unless they were into some really kinky shit; which probably wasn't a viable explanation as to why a PIPE was used.

"Oh Christ; that's disgusting!" Maya shouted, lips curved back with disgust. She totally believed Justin on this, one hundred percent. The others may have had their doubts, but she knew Justin better than anyone else in the room; and she knew what he got like when he was really pissed. Plus she had accidentally found his porn cache on his computer once when he forgot to erase his history. This was probably right up his alley. Literally and figuratively speaking.

"Um… But… How would you fit a pipe up his intestinal track…" Yukiko questioned, busting out that big brain of hers again. She was assuming when he said pipe that he meant the long kind commonly used as weapons (or at least, from what she had seen in Chie's kung fu movies.) There was no way Justin would ever be able to fit that entire thing up there without causing some serious damage to his internal organs. In fact; it would probably kill him. Justin shook his head a bit.

"Well I didn't shove it ALL the way up. Just the tip."

"He looked just like a puppet." Yosuke remarked. Oh, even worse; the guy was walking around with half a pipe just hanging out. This was just getting worse and worse by the second. Naoto shook her head with disgust. She had tried to stop him, but Yosuke had managed to hold her at bay long enough for him to do it. Which is strange, because you would think even Yosuke would object to something so unnecessarily disgusting and dangerous. Guess he was really pissed off over being jumped too. Yu rubbed at his forehead a bit. He was starting to wonder if it was the booze that had done this, or just that they were all psychopaths in the first place.

"…Please tell me you found something out." Yu remarked after a moment, trying to change the subject from Justin's perverted sense of frontier justice. The three passed each other a disappointed glance, knowing full well that they pretty much knew nothing about anything. Nothing on Chie, nothing on the suspect. They had found nothing but a dead-end, again, both figuratively and literally. The three sighed in complete unison.

"Unfortunately not. The suspects we subdued knew nothing about our culprit, nor the whereabouts of Miss Satonaka." Naoto relayed the unfortunate news. Justin groaned, shaking his head for a moment before turning his attention back to the rest of the group.

"We did find out that Yosuke did a lot of cocaine and Yukiko set someone's car on fire though." Justin remarked. It wasn't necessary for anyone to know what they did last night unless it pertained to Chie's whereabouts, so really, revealing this shit to the others probably did little more than to shake their perception of each other. Though strangely enough, no one said a single word as Justin pointed out Yukiko was a pyromaniac. In fact, they all just wore this blank stare, occasionally averting eye contact for a brief second. "…You guys don't look surprised."

"Well, uh… You see…" Yu rubbed at the back of his neck nervously for a moment, slowly pacing over towards the bed and leaning down. Justin, Naoto, Yosuke, and Maya all watched with curiosity, wondering what the hell Yu could possibly be reaching for. They kind of wished they hadn't asked as he slowly crept back up, a look of disgust in his face as he held a dead squirrel between his index finger and his thumb, it's skin and fur burnt to a crisp. Everyone looked like they wanted to vomit, especially Maya. Though she was more angry than anything. She was at a loss for words for a moment before she quickly turned her glare over to Yukiko.

"What the hell is wrong with you!?" She shouted, pure anger in her voice. Maybe it was the fact that an animal, the one thing she loved the most in this world, had been burnt alive for no reason other than Yukiko had gotten drunk. Maybe it was just because it brought back bad memories of the way her pet squirrel had went out (no fire, just lots of broken bones.) Maybe she just didn't like looking at something as vile as a dead squirrel that had been burnt beyond recognition. Whatever it was, she was furious. Hell, even the dog seemed to share her opinion, barking angrily at Yukiko in response. Thankfully Maya wasn't angry enough that she didn't turn back to the dog to calm it down with a few strokes of its fur. It was amazing how well animals and her connected.

"Wh-What can I say… I have a weakness to fire…" Yukiko tried to laugh it off, an out of place smile on her face. Of course, it was only a few seconds before she realized that what she did was completely inexcusable. Pretending it was all just a joke wasn't going to help; if anything it made her feel like a complete bitch. Her smile slowly faded to a frown, and then a depressed expression, as she sighed and hung her head in the palms of her hands once more. "…I'm sorry."

"Jesus, Yu; why the fuck were you guys hiding that thing under your bed!?" Justin questioned with disgust filling his every being. He wasn't holding a grudge against Yukiko the way Maya seemed to be, but even he could agree that burnt squirrel corpse was absolutely disgusting to look at. And god, that smell. That fucking smell. Yu only seemed to grimace harder, slowly slipping the squirrel back under the bed.

"Uh… Well, uh… That's… Sorta not the only one. We couldn't get them all outside without someone noticing and calling the cops on us for animal abuse." Yu hesitantly spit out, slowly starting to realize how disgusting and horrible this all was. He had been trying to convince himself this wasn't as bad as it actually was, partially because of how close his relationship was with Yukiko, but even then… He didn't think anyone could really pretend this wasn't disturbing in so many capacities. He wiped his hands a bit as he pushed the rest of the deceased mammal under the bed using his foot. Out of sight, out of mind after all.

"I hate to intrude, but we do have a time limit here." Naoto reminded them all, fearing they might be getting off track with everyone talking about pipes being shoved up people's assholes and squirrels being set on fire. And it was true; they all needed to find Chie before their ride departed without them. Fuck the culprit; Justin would burn the Ferrari and all evidence they had been in it if he had to; it was more important that everyone was safe and sound. Eyes slowly made their way back to Maya, who had only just stopped glaring at Yukiko. Yukiko all the while was silently trying to apologize to the best of her abilities without speaking, simply moving her lips instead. She truly felt bad about it, which sort of made Maya feel better, but not by much.

"She's right. Maya, please tell me you've made some progress here." Justin pleaded with Maya for good news regarding the dog. Because right now, the dog was the only thing they had to find Chie with. Without the dog, Chie would be lost in Holywood for… well… a while. A while longer than she should be. A small grin slowly started to creep across Maya's face as Justin inquired about the dog. She was still mad about the squirrel, but at least talking about living breathing animals would keep her mind off the matter. She just couldn't understand what they needed her here for. This dog seemed friendly enough; hell, it kept licking her anytime she got too close.

"His name's Koromaru." Maya remarked out loud, a childish grin on her face, as though finding joy in knowing the beast's name. The dog barked with agreement, almost as though to confirm Maya's statement as fact. Justin couldn't help but look at Maya like she was nuts for a moment. He knew she was good with animals, but last he checked, barks could not be translated to any coherent language. How would she even figure that out?

"You… speak dog?" Justin remarked with puzzlement. If there was anyone to find this information out from, it was directly from the source. Maya's grin slowly faded into a slightly exasperated expression, a slight roll of her eyes before she spoke. Clearly this was one of the stupidest things to cross her ears today. And she had heard a LOT of stupid things today.

"No, I read his nametag. What are you, fucking stupid?" Maya remarked bluntly. Koromaru seemed to bark with agreement, a low, vicious growl under his breath as he tried to support the raven haired girl that had been patting his back for the last ten minutes or so.

"Whoa! Chill, just asking. Geez." Justin backed up a bit, raising his arms as though to say 'I don't want no trouble from you.' Maya was very clearly on edge about something; she could be sarcastic at times, but she was very rarely insulting. Given all that had been going down, Justin was willing to let this one slide, but sheesh. Last time he ever asked her a question. "Let's not side step the issue here, can you get him to help or not?" Justin questioned, trying to get to the heart of the matter so he could ease the pain in his heart right now. Maya turned her attention back to the dog, eyeing him as he patted his head again, as though to double check whether Koromaru would be okay with helping them out. He was panting with glee, like dogs usually did when they were happy about something. She was going to take that as a yes.

"I'm not really sure how this works, but I don't see why not." Maya remarked, stroking Koromaru's head as she spoke. The dog yipped a bit with excitement, tongue hanging out of his mouth as he sat there, a cheerful gleam in his eye. Justin sighed before leaning down in front of the canine, rolling up his sleeve of his jacket to reveal his gauss bandaging and the bracelets Chie had given him. He only hoped that they could still use this; it was at least a month ago that she had given them to him, so he wasn't sure if the scent had gone bad or something. Of course, as he slowly stuck his wrist out to allow the dog to sniff at his wristband, the dog started to snarl again. Justin quickly pulled his arm away just in case before shooting Maya a slight glare. "He really doesn't like you, does he?" Maya remarked with curiosity. Koromaru seemed like a good enough dog; there had to be some reason he wouldn't let Justin near him. Maybe he just smelled bad or something.

"I thought you said he'd help." Justin remarked with slight annoyance. They didn't have time to be playing these games with this dog. And besides… These wrist bands were really important to Justin. If the dog were to try and bite him while he had his wrist held out like that, if he were to tear the fabric of the band apart with his teeth... Well, Justin didn't want that. It would just break his heart a little more than it already was. It was a rather fragile thing considered how tough his outer shell was. Perhaps he was just trying to protect it; from what of from who… He didn't know. He didn't care.

"Give me the band." Maya remarked, gesturing for Justin to pass the wrist band to her, suspecting that the dog simply had a problem with Justin, and not the band itself. Justin sighed, a little reluctant to take off the one thing he still had of Chie right now, though he eventually complied, rolling the band off before dropping it in Maya's palm. "Alright Koromaru; do you think you can find who this belongs to?" Maya requested. The dog stared at the wrist band for a moment, and without even taking a sniff, immediately turned to Justin and barked happily. Justin couldn't help but slap himself in the forehead. _Yeah good job, you found out who it belonged to. Now find Chie, you fuck!_ "No, not like that. Like, the person who had it before. Do you think you can do that?"

The dog barked happily before actually sniffing it this time, inhaling the scent on the band for a moment or two before jumping back up again, barking and running about in circles as though already in search of the missing girl. Perfect; this might have been easier than they thought it was going to be. "Thank god you were here Maya." Justin thanked her as she slowly stood up, dusting off her skirt as she stood, a cheerful grin on her face. She was always happy to help; after all, it was the least she could do all things in the past considered. She owed all of them a life debt as far as she was concerned, even if they'd beg to differ. "Yu, open the door. Everyone else, let's go." Justin dictated, trying to get Yu to open the passage to let the dog find his way to Chie. He was more than happy to listen to Justin's orders; hell everyone was. Everyone that wasn't Rise that is. She rubbed at her neck nervously for a moment, not really budging from her seat.

"Um… senpai?" Rise spoke after a moment, calling out to Justin. Justin turned about with curiosity, not really sure what could be so important that she couldn't talk about this while they walked to wherever Chie might have been hiding out for the last few hours. Her face was flushed, and she was clearly trying to avoid eye contact. "I… can't really go out like this… with… you know…" Rise nervously stammered, trying to avoid directly stating how she was missing half of her locks of hair thanks to someone deciding it would be a good idea to shave it off. Though given the stench in the room when she woke up, she was going to guess some of it got burned off, not shaved. And you can guess who did that. Justin sighed and paused for a moment. It seemed a little ridiculous for her to be getting self-conscious about her appearances at a time like this… but he supposed she was right. Especially considering she had to deal with the paparazzi.

"…Here." Justin spoke, trying to get her attention as he pulled his arms out of the sleeves of his hooded jacket, tossing it over to her, much to her surprise. She had gotten the implications almost immediately, though she wasn't sure how to feel about this. Thankful, she supposed; it was a simple gesture, but it meant a lot to her all the same. "It might be a little big, but you can still use the hood to hid the back of your head." Justin explained to her, as if she couldn't have figured that out herself. She smiled warmly at him as she slipped the jacket on, being sure to zip it tight so that it fight snugly to her body frame.

"You're so sweet senpai." She thanked him as she slowly moved out of the room to join the others. Justin just shrugged a bit as she walked by. He really wasn't in the mood for Rise's flirting shit right about now, but he supposed that's who she was. And it wasn't like being sweet was a romantically exclusive thing or something. Justin was about to turn around to join the others when he heard barking again. He slowly turned around to find the rest of the group just standing there, hands in their palms as the dog dragged one of the burnt squirrels out from under the bed, dropping it at Maya's feet. She wasn't really sure how to feel about that. On one hand, the dog probably meant it as a gift; she knew animals well enough that that was probably the case. On the other hand, it was a dead fucking squirrel.

"Oh, uh… Good boy." She remarked, a slightly disgusted look on her face. Really; they couldn't have thrown this out the window or something? She got that they didn't want to look suspicious carrying out a bunch of dead squirrels, but come on. Justin sighed and gripped at his forehead with his index finger and thumb, pinching it to try and relieve his headache.

"…My life is a goddamned mess.."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

* * *

"Are you sure this dog knows the way?"

The group had been following Koromaru around for probably an hour or so now, and yet it seemed they weren't getting any closer to Chie. In fact, they had passed by the mall at least three times since they started following the dog around everywhere; if the dog was following her scent around to find her, how was it they were walking around in circles? Shouldn't her smell have taken them all straight to her? I mean, Justin was no expert on scents or tracking down people based ON their scent, but still; it just seemed odd to him. Maya sighed a bit, keeping a careful eye on Koromaru as he kept his nose to the ground, sniffing around carefully, but quickly as he paced the concrete jungle.

"First of all, his name's Koromaru. And he's gotta; dog's are good at that kind of stuff, right?" Maya mused out loud, turning her gaze away from the dog for a brief moment to look at Justin, a somewhat concerned look in her eyes, as though doubting her own attempts to reassure Justin that Koromaru knew what he was doing. They had been walking for what seemed like forever without any real progress, which begged the question of whether he had even picked up on her scent in the first place. Was it possible the wrist-bands just weren't a good enough source to follow her trail off of? After all, they were Justin's now, so even if she had worn them before, or used them at some point prior, wouldn't it have Justin's scent on it instead? Really, they probably should have asked Yukiko to get something out of Chie's luggage in her room; that definitely would have had her scent. But alas, it was too late for that now; they were too far away from the hotel to make a trip back and still have time to locate her.

"I've never personally worked with a canine unit; but it is from my understanding that it takes dogs a moment before they can pick up the trail." Naoto tried to reassure them that the dog was doing exactly what it should be. Still, even she was getting a little impatient, and having run around in circles for a good hour now, she had to wonder if they were even getting close to picking up Chie's scent anywhere. "Still… I am concerned that we aren't making much legwork here." Naoto expressed her concerns, adjusting her hat as she spoke. The dog was probably their best bet at the moment, but the fact of the matter was it was going to take a while; and they didn't have that much time to find the girl. Justin groaned with disappointment, annoyed that their ace in the hole was in fact completely useless. If only they could backtrack their steps, but no one remembered anything.

"Come on Koromaru, can't you find anything?" Maya crouched down beside the dog for a moment, making eye contact with the beast as she softly spoke to it, pleading with it to pick up the pace, to put all of its efforts into the search. The dog whined a bit, as though saddened by the question, perhaps implying that he was just as clueless as they were. And that scared the ever living shit out of Justin. Still, the dog poised its nose up towards the sky, sniffing at the air as if to try and pick up any lingering smells, anything that could help point them in the right direction. He suddenly began to bark happily, his tongue hanging out of his mouth as he charged off. "Wha- Hey, wait!" Maya shouted after the dog as it dashed off. Seemed he was hot onto something.

Justin quickly began to push his way through the group the second he saw the dog run off, his heart racing as it dawned upon him that this could be it; that they might have very well found Chie, that the two would be reunited, and she would be safe again. The rest of the group dashed off following his lead soon after, Maya managing to keep a brisk pace beside him, despite her lack of athletic prowess, and the others following shortly behind. It was difficult keeping up with the excited canine as he maneuvered from building to building, past bystanders on the sidewalk, but the group managed to keep up. It was a good couple of minutes before the dog skid to a stop, the group practically crashing into him in the process. Koromaru certainly wasn't too pleased about Justin almost toppling over him, but Maya managed to calm him down long enough for Justin to back up to a safe distance.

"Have you found something boy?" Maya questioned Koromaru, kneeling down beside him as she tried to see what he had been chasing all this while. They had thought he had found Chie, but… he just sort of stopped here near the local shrine… and playground given the presence of a slide and some monkey bars nearby. There was no sign of Satonaka anywhere in this place, and that broke Justin's spirits a bit as his eyes scanned the area. There were people here, but none of them were her; so he didn't really give a damn about them. Which is perhaps more than he could say about Koromaru, who had started barking at someone in the distance: a brown haired girl wearing a pink sweater, a short skirt and black knee socks. She was talking to a cop about something, though what, the group couldn't really hear from this distance. The dog slowly began to run up to the two, much to the group's annoyance and concern; they didn't need Koromaru starting shit or biting anyone, especially when he wasn't THEIR dog. This could be very problematic. "Hey! Koromaru, stay!" Maya tried to get him to stop, but alas, her pleas went unheard as he continued to dash towards the girl, the Investigation Team trailing behind him trying to keep him under control.

"He's a white shiba-inu, about yay tall, his name's Koromaru." The group could hear her talking as they slowly dashed towards her, a slow expression of collective dread sweeping across all their faces as they slowly realized what was going on. Koromaru hadn't smelt Chie; he had smelt his owner. And here she was with a cop reporting him missing, describing the dog to him. And here they were with said stolen dog. They wanted to skid their feet to a stop, to turn around and run before shit hit the ceiling, but it was much too late. "No, he didn't run away; he never leaves he- Whoa, hey!" She remarked with surprise as the dog practically tackled her, jumping up to lick her. The cop didn't seem too amused though.

"Did he look a little something like that?" The cop remarked sarcastically with annoyance, putting away the notepad in his hands and rolling his eyes. "Please refrain from wasting police time and resources for misplacing your pet… and keep that thing on a leesh." He remarked condescendingly before turning around and marching off, leaving the girl behind to scoff at the police officer that had treated her like a child for reporting a serious crime she had been a victim of.

"Waste!? Wha-!? Maybe someone should steal YOUR dog and see how you like it!" She remarked with anger, growling behind the police officer's back as he slowly made his way out of the park, like a teenager mocking their parents after being lectured. She shook her head before turning her attention to Koromaru, a still angered expression on her face. "And where were you!? You know you're not supposed to wander off like that!" She scolded the dog, speaking to it as if it were no different than a child. The dog just barked happily however, spinning around in a circle before dashing out towards the Investigation Team, much to their terror, sitting down at Maya's feet and barking happily at her, tongue hanging loose from his mouth all the while. The girl seemed to have put the pieces together almost immediately, her look of surprise turning to one of anger within seconds. Maya chuckled nervously, holding her hands up so that her palms were facing away from her in a defensive manner.

"Aha, this… isn't what it looks like." Maya tried to defend herself, to deflect the blame for what had happened, hoping to just pass themselves off as bystanders who just happened to be going to the shrine. Koromaru, of course, had no intention of letting that happen, letting loose another bark with glee. Koromaru didn't seem too upset about being stolen by the group, especially now that Maya had been involved, but his owner most certainly was. "Quiet, Koromaru." Maya whispered to the dog, trying to keep its mouth shut. As if the girl couldn't hear her little aside to Koromaru.

"So you're the ones who stole Koromaru!" She shouted, aggressively getting in their faces, pure anger running through her veins as she confronted the people who stole her pet. The Investigation Team passed each other a couple of glances, partially of fear, partially of shame. They had been caught red handed; and now, not only did they not have Koromaru to check Chie's scent, but they also had his owner breathing down their neck for thievery. They could go to jail for this if she so much as turned around to call out to the cop she was speaking to earlier. And then no one could save Chie. Justin passed the others one last glance before turning his attention back to the girl.

"…Yeah, probably." He admitted, figuring lying wasn't really going to get them anywhere. They all knew that dog was stolen; there was no other way they would be trapped with that thing in the motel if they hadn't. He got jabbed in the rib by Yu as he made the remark, but otherwise, it didn't seem anything had gone horribly wrong with his confession. Koromaru did insist on snarling at him like some sort of monster though, which only seemed to piss his owner off more.

"Probably!? Who do you people think you are!? What were you going to do, hold him ransom!? Try and get the reward for finding a lost dog!?" She lectured them all, tearing them a new asshole for their drunken shenanigans. Koromaru just continued to bark and snarl at Justin though, much to his annoyance. Actually, he was getting the strangest urge to kick the dog in its fucking face. He had about enough of this shit out of him; and he STILL hadn't proved himself useful, he still hadn't brought them any closer to finding Chie. The girl looked down at Koromaru as she noticed him getting slightly more and more agitated. "Huh? What's wrong, boy?"

The dog stared at Justin, in a position that implied it were ready to pounce at any second, snarling and generally being on the defensive. Justin crossed his arms and rolled his eyes a bit as the dog continued to treat him like some sort of threat. Usually Maya just calmed him down when he got like that; but clearly that wasn't happening right now. The girl just stared at the dog for a moment with confusion before her eyes widened a bit, as though she had just realized something. "Wait, you don't mean…?" The girl talked to the dog like she could understand its snarls. The dog only seemed to bark with confirmation as the girl stared at them with wary eyes.

At that moment, she slowly and cautiously began to walk away from the group, eyes darting back and forth between them as she tried to get some distance between the group and her. Justin passed a confused glance to his sides, as if hoping to figure out why she was backing away from the others; though they were only as confused as he was. Justin slowly turned his attention back to the girl at which point he had spotted what she was trying to do. Her hand was slowly slipping down towards her outer thigh, where a white holster and gun had been. You'd think they would have noticed that earlier, but whatever; better they noticed it now before they got shot than later. Justin quickly pulled out his gun and aimed it at her, stopping her from trying to draw her weapon on them. He wasn't in the mood for this shit today; he had enough problems without getting shot in the face by some random stranger.

"You pull that gun out and I guarantee you there'll be more lead in you than a pencil." Justin remarked angrily glaring at her, gun carefully trained on her as she cautiously pulled her hand away from the handle of her gun. Of course, by this point she was only glaring back at Justin; no one pointed a gun on her and stayed on her good terms after all. The Investigation Team watched with slight horror as he held this girl at gunpoint. They understood the necessity after they spotted the gun, but that didn't make them any more comfortable with this standoff.

"Actually, pencils don't have lead, they have graph…ite…" Yukiko began to correct him, though she was immediately met by a lot of funny glances. It hadn't really occurred to her that Justin was very well aware of that, or that it was merely an expression. Or the fact that this was a little more important than being factually correct about what was in a pencil. "Sorry." She quickly apologized, blushing a bit over her interruption.

"I don't get it; the Dark Hour's gone. What the hell is a shadow doing out here!?" The girl mumbled all sorts of nonsense to herself as she held her hands up, clearly at the mercy of the man pointing a gun at her. Or shadow apparently. Justin's pupils shot from side to side, once again checking the reaction of his friends; a look of confusion across his face, mouth slightly ajar and one eyebrow elevated higher than the other. Justin wasn't sure what was more concerning; the fact that this girl knew what a shadow was, the fact that she was accusing Justin of being a shadow, or the fact that she was mumbling some bullshit about some dark hour or something.

"Shadow? Hold up lady; I ain't no shadow, but now I just have a shit ton of questions." Justin remarked with great confusion and annoyance. "Who are you, and what the fuck do you know about shadows?" Justin interrogated her, waving his gun slightly as though to remind her what was waiting for her if she didn't answer their questions. As if any of the others were going to allow Justin to fire that gun just because this girl refused to answer his inquiries. Of course, the mention of shadows on the girl's behalf sure as hell brought up a lot of questions that they wouldn't truly be satisfied with left unanswered. Except maybe Naoto who was confused as all fuck right now. The girl sighed, clearly not a fan of explaining anything to the man training his iron sights on her.

"My name's Yukari Takeba. And I could ask you the same question!" She deflected the shadow portion of the question. "You can stop playing dumb; Koromaru has a nose for this kind of thing you know. Wait… Don't tell me this is like that thing with Ryoji again…" Yukari tried to flip the interrogation over on the man pointing a gun at her, though her arrogant attitude faded to slight concern as her comment dragged on. Justin began to chew at his bottom lip. If it was true that this dog could sniff out shadows, it was very possible he was sniffing out Justin's alternate personality. And that would certainly explain why Koromaru seemed to hate him so much. Still; he couldn't really admit that to some random stranger. Hell, he shouldn't have even been having this conversation around Naoto anyway. You could tell she was very suspicious of the group right about now.

"Justin. And for the last time, I am not a shadow." Justin remarked with annoyance, spinning his gun around on his index finger before holstering it. Extending his hand outwards to show her he had no tricks up his sleeve. If he was a shadow, he wouldn't be offering her this chance right now, and he wanted to make that perfectly clear. "And for the record; I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about. Who the hell is Ryoji?"

"Look, I don't have time for this! What did you want with Koromaru, you thieves!" She continued to scold the group, irritated by the questioning Justin had been employing on her. She clearly still believed he was a shadow much to his annoyance. He shook his head with disgust, turning his attention to the others for a moment as though to ask them with his eyes alone if they could believe this bitch. He just had a gun pointed at her and she was still trying to give him lip. He eventually turned his attention back to the girl, crossing his arms and sighing a bit. He supposed they did owe her an explanation as to why they took her dog, even if he didn't want to explain anything to Yukari until she explained what this Dark Hour shit was.

"Look; we didn't mean to take your dog… We were at a club and we were having some soda…" Justin paused for a moment as Yukari glared at him, as though she thought he meant something else by soda. I mean what else would you have at a club? "Don't give me that look; I'll explain it in a second, dammit. Anyway; someone… sort of spiked the drinks. We got really drunk and when we woke up, we had your dog. So, sorry; it wasn't our choice." Justin apologized a bit. His eyes dropped down for a moment, staring at the canine that had gone back to trying to jump up and licking Maya in the face. "…Look, I know you're going to think we're nuts but… We can't give you back your dog yet." Everyone shot Justin a glance like he was crazy.

"Excuse me!?" Yukari remarked with annoyance. She was going to forgive them for taking her dog seeing as it was beyond their control for a moment, but then Justin turned around and said he was going to hold on to HER canine without her permission. Justin held his hand out to stop her in her tracks before she started to bitch them out.

"I know, I know; you have no reason to trust us, but listen to me I'm begging you. We need him." Justin began to plead with her, folding his hands in a begging position as he tried to appease to any sign of a soul this woman might have had. You could tell she was very annoyed by this, but at least she was listening instead of just dragging her dog off, so that was a good sign. "Like I said the drinks were spiked, and when we woke up… We didn't remember anything, and… We lost someone. We have no clue where she is, but we need to find her fast before she gets hurt. We've been having your dog try to track her scent; he's the only lead we've got on her… Please, we just want to make sure she's safe." Justin damn near fell to his knees as if to worship the girl in exchange for use of her dog. She just looked at him with pity though as he was practically on the verge of tears over whoever it was they had lost.

"You know, this reminds me a lot of something that happened with one of my friends." The girl mused silently to herself, rubbing at her chin as she considered the proposition. She didn't know these people, but she did know that whoever they were, she knew what it was like to know someone was out there, lost, helpless, powerless, possibly in danger; and despite all odds, they had the tools to find them and bring them safely home. She didn't know who was lost, but she knew she couldn't just leave them out there. She sighed with defeat after a moment, leaning down to speak to the dog. "Whaddya say Koromaru?" She asked the dog for his input. Koromaru just barked happily though, wagging its tail and panting. "…Fine. But don't think I'm just letting you walk off with my dog. And you still owe me an explanation!" She tried to put a condition on Koromaru's services, as if they REALLY intended to walk off with her dog without her tagging along. How the hell were they going to find her again if they didn't? Justin smiled warmly with gratitude, extending his hand to shake hers.

"Fine, fine. Welcome to the club." He joked a bit, still waiting for a handshake on her behalf as a contract of sorts between the two. He never did get it though as she simply folded her arms, ignoring the kind gesture on Justin's behalf. He wished he could say this was the first time someone had denied him a handshake; but the fact of the matter was he very rarely had someone return the sentiment. Did he have sweaty palms or something?

"I was already part of a club that did this kind of thing; it didn't end too well." She remarked, rejecting the concept of being part of the team. Justin just rolled his eyes and shrugged. Looked like she was going to be a cold-hearted bitch about all this. Though to be fair; they did steal her dog and hold her at gunpoint, so that might have been understandable. Yukari turned her attention back down towards the dog. "You know which way, Koromaru?" She questioned. The dog happily barked before quickly dashing off without warning. The Investigation Team sighed before slowly turning about to face the dog. Hopefully it knew which way it was going now that it wasn't trying to look for someone completely different. "So what's this girl look like anyway.

"Short light brown hair, bowl-cut, a little bit shorter than me, brown eyes. She usually wears green, but, you know. School trips." Justin shrugged a bit as they walked. There were a lot more terms he'd use to describe her, but most of them weren't exactly things he'd indulge to a complete stranger, lest he sound like a creep. Though, he did have to wonder if 'perfect smile' fell under cute or weird as far as descriptors went. "You haven't seen her at all, have you?" Justin questioned, wondering if perhaps this girl had the slightest clue where Chie might have been. She just shook her head though.

"Hmm… I don't think so." She thought about the matter, but couldn't seem to think of anyone that perfectly matched that description. Justin sighed with disappointment as they continued to walk. He was hoping to end this quickly, to mend his broken heart; but it seemed fate was kind of a bitch. The team slowly began to follow the dog's trails, slowly making their way back to the twisting maze of alleyways in search of their girl again. Or at least they had until Kanji stopped dead in his tracks.

"What's up?" Yu questioned as the rest of the investigation team stopped to stare at him. He was starring wide eyed at some poster that had been attached to a telephone pole they were passing. You could practically see the sweat dripping from his pores as he read the poster; a wanted poster to be precise. A wanted poster with his face on it. A wanted poster for an alleged pedophile who had gone streaking through the playground last night. Yukari slowly approached the pole to examine the poster for herself, though Kanji quickly ripped it off and crumpled it before she could read what it said.

"Oh uh, nothing. Let's go."

"I'd say at least it can't get any worse; but I get a feeling it does."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

* * *

"No, you stupid fucking dog! For the last time you're finding HER scent not mine! Goddamn!"

So the team wasn't exactly making much progress on the whole finding Chie thing, what with Koromaru stopping at every chance to bark at Justin as if he had found the source of the scent. Justin wasn't sure if the dog was just trying to be a smartass (if dogs even knew how to do that) or if he genuinely was getting confused by what he was searching for. All he knew was they were still running in circles, and this dog was not fucking helping. If anything he made it worse. Did you know that apparently an entire warehouse got burned down that night? Now, Justin wasn't saying Yukiko was the one who did it… But, yeah, she probably did it. Yukari glared a bit at Justin with irritation, not exactly fond of him yelling at her dog apparently. To be fair; Koromaru kind of had it coming. He could understand the first time, but the twelfth? Uh, uh; Koromaru was a smart enough dog to know better; he was doing it now just to get on Justin's nerves for some inexplicable reason. What was Koromaru's problem with Justin anyway? He didn't even give Teddie this much shit, and Teddie could be REALLY annoying sometimes. At least Justin tried to be nice to the dog; but there were limitations to his kindness.

"Hey! Don't yell at him!" Yukari scolded Justin with annoyance. It was bad enough that he had stolen her dog and made her tag along for whatever misadventures it was they had gotten involved in, but he had to have an attitude about it? Justin glared back at her, groaning with anger but otherwise biting his tongue. One foul move and she'd leave with her dog… Plus he kind of stole her dog in the first place, so he couldn't be TOO much of a prick. The fact of the matter was he was pissed off; not necessarily at Koromaru, but at all of this. It was enough that shit had hit the ceiling but they were running out of time very fast; and he had no intention of leaving this city with a broken heart and a torn up conscious. Koromaru being a smartass wasn't helping in the slightest.

"Look, we've got a bus back home in two hours; if we don't find her by then shit is going to hit the fan. Your dog needs to stop trying to be funny and fucking focus!" Justin gave her shit back, though he tried to be at least SLIGHTLY polite about it. He failed miserably. Yukari groaned for a moment with anger, before gesturing to the dog to get moving. Koromaru was happy enough to obey, and with that the group set off once again, this time outside a series of stores near the train station. Justin had hoped that someone here knew where she was, but every shopkeeper he had asked about Chie only told him the closest they had seen to someone matching that description was Yukari. _Yeah, fantastic._

"Oh you have got to be kidding me…" Maya sighed, crouching over a bit as they walked to eye another poor woodland creature burnt alive. This time a raccoon. By this point Yukiko had given up trying to justify setting everything on fire, just hanging her head in shame as she stared at the corpses of her fire obsession. "Please tell me someone's taken the lighter away from you." Maya remarked with aggravated disgust as she averted her eyes from the poor creature, its life taken away from it by a drunken pyromaniac.

"You know... That's… probably the first thing we should have done…" Yu remarked, rubbing his chin for a moment as if to contemplate taking away the weapon of death and destruction from Yukiko now; even if she was as sober as ever. Yukiko quickly darted her hands into her pockets in search of wherever the lighter may be; she obviously didn't want it anymore. It was a moment, but she eventually found it; your basic blue lighter, though it did have a homemade engravement on the side, scratched out with a razorblade from the looks of it. Justin's eyes widened a bit before darting his hand out to take the lighter from Yukiko.

"Jesus fuck, who gave you my lighter!?" Justin remarked with surprised annoyance, shoving the lighter back into his pocket. He had quit smoking, but he still kept the lighter around, if only because lighters could be useful for a lot more productive things than giving yourself lung cancer. He was going to have to reconsider that now. He just hoped that forensic science couldn't link Yukiko's path of fire back to the lighter, and thus him since the lighter was his after all. "…Probably me, now that I think about it." Justin mused to himself, realizing just how drunk he was. He was probably the one egging her on in retrospect; sounded like something he would do.

"At this point it would be easier to keep a list of things Yukiko hasn't set on fire…" Maya sighed, shaking her head as they walked right past the dead racoon trying to pretend Yukiko wasn't a psychopath. Yu tried to keep her spirits up by giving her a pat on the back, but alas, there was only so much stuff you could burn to a crisp before it became probable that Yukiko had some serious issues with fire. Again, not all too reassuring when her Persona could set shit on fire with a snap of her finger. Thank god there was nothing really worth saving in the television, otherwise that might be problematic.

"I'm really sorry…" She tried to apologize again, though that was immediately cut off by Koromaru barking loudly at the distant horizon. Justin's eyes lit up, pure hope fuelling his veins at this point. Justin had almost considered crouching down to the dog, to ask if he was on to something, but then he remembered Koromaru hated him and would probably bite his face off given the chance. So instead Maya did the honors, getting down on her knee to speak to the animal.

"What's wrong boy? Have you found her?" Maya questioned softly to the animal, whispering in its ear. You had to wonder why she felt the need to get so close to the dog or why she had to whisper, but no one was going to question her methods when they got results. The dog barked happily before darting off again, to no one's surprise at all. The group quickly ran after the beast, save maybe Maya, who had to get up from kneeling first before she could catch up with the others. Koromaru trailed off, swerving in between people and rounding corners as he slowly rode off in search of the girl. Alas, by the time they had finally came to a stop outside some fast food place with a duck mascot, there was no sign of Chie; much to Justin's disappointment. By this point he just wanted to kick the dog for constantly raising his hopes only to dash them against the rocks.

"Why are you doing this to me? Why!?" Justin cried out, practically on the verge of tears as the dog raised his hopes only to smash them in seconds. Koromaru barked, spinning around in a circle for a moment before turning its eyes downwards, keeping its body mass low as it sniffed at some piece of garbage. Justin raised his eyebrow with curiosity at the sight of Koromaru sniffing some red blood stained rag, and it was most definitely blood. Yu crouched down to examine the rag more closely, as if this piece of trash was actually significant in any regard.

"Wait… Is this Chie's?" Yu questioned with concern as he spotted the blood stain on the rag. It still looked like a fresh stain, which was deeply concerning. Justin wasn't sure if Yu was trying to give him another heart attack by bringing up the potential of the blood belonging to her, but it wasn't working. Justin could be a little paranoid and a little over-protective, but even then, he knew this wasn't her blood. Not because he had the magical ability to match blood types or anything like that, but he knew Chie didn't carry around a rag with her like this. She'd have to buy it or get it from someone else during her drunken spree, and he doubted she'd just leave it behind if she did.

"I don't think so. For starters, Chie doesn't carry one of these things around; I doubt she even owns one. But even if she did, you see this?" Justin scraped his finger against the cloth texture, drawing blood from its surface and onto his finger, its red color staining his white flesh within seconds. "It's not dry; which means the blood is fresh. It's been long enough that she's probably sobered up by now, so if she had gotten hurt and this was her blood, it would have dried. Unless of course she managed to hurt herself while she was sober; in which case, I doubt she'd just leave this behind." Justin explained his theory, though whether he was convincing the others or convincing himself was up for debate. To be fair, a lot of Justin's points were entirely circumstantial; a lot of it was very weak and could easily be disproven. But no one would dare say that to him; they already knew he was under enough emotional duress without presenting to him the possibility that his girlfriend was bleeding out somewhere. For the moment, they'd just keep the possibility hidden in the back of their minds. Yukari slowly approached the two talking over the bloody rag, a look of perplexion on her face as she tried to examine the rag more closely.

"I swear I've seen this somewhere before…" Yukari mused to herself, something about the color and texture of the cloth striking her as a bit familiar. The group's eyes slowly fell upon her, curious as to what she meant by that. It was just a red rag; how could it POSSIBLY look familiar? It wasn't just the rag itself though that had caught her attention. It was the exact color, the exact way the fabric was torn at the bottom, the creases where it had most likely been folded. She couldn't put her finger on it, but she had definitely seen this before.

"So… This isn't just trash then?" Justin questioned after a moment. He didn't know much about this Yukari girl, and half the shit that came out of her mouth made no sense, but he would take any lead he could get on the matter at this point. If the cloth looked familiar to her, it was quite possible that it belonged to someone. And if the dog had purposely lead them to this garbage, which was all but confirmed by Koromaru barking with confirmation at Justin's inquiry, then it was probable that whoever this belonged to had met Chie at some point. This just might be their big break.

"Though I have to wonder…" Naoto began to muse as she joined the slowly growing ring around the bloody cloth. "If this isn't Satonaka's blood; whose exactly is it?" Her eyes darted up at the others in a slightly interrogatory manner, as if expecting them to know the answer. Of course, they had only just found the rag, so they were about as clueless as they could get on the subject. Justin, Yukari, and Yu all passed each other a contemplative expression, trying to see what the others had thought on the matter. No one really knew, though Justin was willing to place a guess on the most obvious explanation.

"Well I would guess whoever owns it." Justin shrugged after a moment. "Like I said; I don't think Chie even owns one of these, and given the time frame of our drunken shenanigans, it can't be hers." Justin restated his stance on the source of the blood, again as though to convince himself that no harm had befallen his beloved, that the blood HAD to belong to someone else. Naoto of course had her doubts, but she was willing to roll with it for the time being, to take into the account the possibility of the blood belonging to another. She adjusted her hat for a moment, making a slight gesture with her index finger as though to stop everyone's train of thought for a moment. Her detective's intuition was acting up again.

"Well then let us assume this rag is not the possession of Miss Satonaka. If this rag does not belong to Chie-senpai, how then would it have her scent on it?" Naoto remarked, grabbing a hold of the evidence so she could examine it closer herself. Justin raised his eyebrow for a moment with curiosity. It seemed that the answer to that inquiry was pretty obvious.

"She probably used it at some point." Justin shrugged, not seeing what it was Naoto was getting at. It was clear she was asking questions she knew the answer to already, but he was willing to play along with this charade if it helped them find where Chie had gotten lost. Naoto shook her head, not very satisfied with the answer Justin had given her. While that was certainly a possibility, it was clear she didn't have the rag last given that the fresh blood on the rag couldn't have been hers based on what they knew about the night prior. Which meant her scent wouldn't be as prominent as the owner's, especially when blood was involved. The scent of blood should have drowned out Satonaka's by a large margin.

"While that's a possibility; the scent of blood on this rag would have overshadowed her scent had it not belonged to Satonaka." Naoto remarked, though that only served to horrify Justin. For a moment, it sounded like she was implying that it WAS Chie's blood, which was something Justin refused to believe was true. "I've been considering the matter for quite a while now, and something rather off occurred to me. Every location that Koromaru has lead us to thus far has had some relation to our activities the night prior. Why is that?" Naoto continued to play a game of twenty questions with the group.

"Because she was with us? Come on, it's not rocket science." Justin remarked with annoyance, wishing Naoto would just get to the point again. Naoto just shook her head again, disappointed that what had struck her as so obvious was going over the group's heads. Alas though, that's probably why she was the one with a badge and the other's were just playing detective.

"Once again, no. If she had been with us the residents of each area should have seen her, yet none of the civilians at the scene have any recollection of seeing her anywhere; she must have branched off rather early." Naoto put aside Justin's theory in a matter of seconds. Justin had just assumed no one present that night had been there that morning to recap her location, but he supposed Naoto's theory was also true in some capacity. "I have a theory, if you'll indulge me on the matter. The scent that had lead Koromaru here was not Chie's, but rather the owner of this rag. Given that Koromaru has stopped at several keypoints in our misadventures last night, it's likely that whoever this rag belongs to has been at each of these points. Can I assume that none of you own a rag such as this?" Naoto questioned the others, holding the rag up so the others could see. She was met by everyone shaking their head, denying to have seen a rag like that anywhere as it was; save maybe Yukari, who was still trying to remember where she had seen that before. "Then I ask you; if whomever's scent we've been following has been following us every step of the way, but it was not one of us, who then does the scent belong to?" Yu rubbed at his chin for a second before being struck by a sudden bolt of realization.

"The culprit!" Everyone's eyes darted over to Yu with shock, not entirely following his train of thought. "Whoever drugged us must have had a reason to do it right? Could it be possible that he was following us around to see how we would act?" Yu proposed to the group, starting to see what Naoto was getting at here. Justin just shook his head with disbelief; this entire theory fell apart with one simple fact.

"Now wait a second; how would Koromaru have even gotten that scent in the first place? He sniffed my wristband; the only scents he should have been able to pick up were mine or hers!" Justin countered. He'd love to say it was the culprit; after all, he would know where Chie was AND they'd get his ass in cuffs; but the fact of the matter was it made no sense. Naoto nodded her head with slight agreement, though she also had a counter argument to that of her own.

"True; if the wristband had only come in contact with you our Chie-senpai, the only scents present on this article should have been hers or your own. IF you were the only ones." Naoto repeated the circumstances, the if statement to the dilemma's coding. Justin shook his head for a moment, biting his bottom lip with aggravation before turning back to Naoto.

"What are you trying to say? Get to the point already!" Justin shouted with annoyance, aggravated that Naoto was wasting his and her time playing these games of cat and mouse. She knew what she wanted to say, and playing 20 questions was doing nothing but waste all of their time. Naoto glared back, suddenly remembering why she had suspected this guy being the murderer in the Hanged Man case a few months back: because he was a complete asshole. Okay, so maybe that wasn't the ONLY reason; in fact, it was hardly a reason at all. But she'd be damned if it didn't do wonders for his character profile.

"If you'll indulge me, I'd like to reenact some criminal profiling." Naoto remarked, turning her back to the increasingly pissed off Justin, pacing around as she proposed a possible scenario to the group. "Begin scene at the club, the culprit is working behind the scenes at the club, handling the drinks. According to the bartender, said culprit had a strong disdain for his job, and often times would not even arrive for work. Imagine for a moment you're in the same position as the bartender; you hate your job, so what do you do? You try to make the best of it, in this circumstance, the suspect turned to drugging our drunks, to watch how we reacted for entertainment. At first our drunken activities were restrained to the club, but as you know, it's hard to control someone under the influence, especially as heavily so us. We tried to leave the club, which of course spelt trouble for the culprit; not only would he be unable to observe our activities in the club, but he would risk us getting into trouble outside the bar, and that by extension would lead to punishment on his behalf as well. So he tries to stop us from leaving the club, namely by grabbing Justin-senpai by the wrist." Justin's annoyed expression slowly shifted to his wrist. He couldn't say he recalled that happening, but it would certainly make sense to him. He just had to wonder how such brief contact would leave behind his scent. "Now the culprit has two possible motives; we can certainly say for a fact the culprit was present at the stolen car, the park Kanji had gone streaking in, the burnt down warehouse, the hotel, and the alleyway where Yosuke had come into possession of cocaine according to Koromaru's stops along the trail. That said, he was most certainly following us; it's simply a matter of whether he was doing so to continue observing us from a distance, or to try and stop us from causing anymore damage."

"Wow… Way to go Naoto!" Rise gushed with admiration, almost flirtatiously in some ways; though Naoto sure as hell hadn't picked up on it. Justin nodded a bit with agreement; it seemed a very likely scenario the way she put it. Alas however, it didn't really matter to him how it happened; this was all stuff that would only be relevant in court. Here it was all about finding either culprit A or missing person B; no need to go into motives or methods.

"Well that's all well and good; but none of that's going to matter if we don't find these people." Justin remarked before snatching the rag out of Naoto's hands. She growled a bit under her breath, a little annoyed at how forceful about this interrogation was. She got that he was just concerned, but even now it was getting to a point of being rude. Justin crouched down with the rag in hand holding it up to the dog. Thankfully, Koromaru didn't seem to want to bite Justin this time, instead opting to just get a good whiff of his blood. If they had been managing to follow the culprits trail this entire time of only a short contact, imagine how quickly they would be able to find him with a heavy dose of his blood. "Think you can find him with this, boy?" The dog took a big whiff of it before barking happily, a wide grin on his face. "We might just make some progress after all." Justin chuckled to himself.

He was about to stand up, to depart to follow the dog in its pursuit of the culprit's smell, when something rather odd had interrupted him. Koromaru began to whine for a moment, coughing as if it were choking on a hairball. "You alright, Koromaru?" Maya spoke to the dog sympathetically, trying to discern what was wrong. What was wrong was it had something clogged in its stomach that shouldn't have been there, and now its body was getting rid of it the fastest way possible: his throat. Within seconds of the remark, Koromaru barfed up its stomach contents all over Justin's shoes. Justin didn't even flinch, just taking a deep breath as he tried to restrain himself from snapping this canine's neck where he stood. Everyone backed away from Justin in slow horror and disgust, clutching their mouths so as to avoid throwing up themselves. It took Justin a moment to gather the courage needed to look at his barf stained shows.

"Oh… that's… Oh…" Yosuke muttered to himself trying to find the best words for how to describe what they were seeing. It wasn't so much the puke that was bothering everyone; it was the fact that there was a finger in it. "I think I'm going to hurl. What the fuck is wrong with us?" Justin stared at it, jaw wide open for a moment before jumping up throwing his arms into the sky with disgust. "Justin, stay calm…" Yosuke implored him as Justin tried to hold back screams of disgust, confusion and anger.

"No, I'm fucking done! I'm fucking done! This is bullshit! This is fucking bullshit!" Justin shouted angrily, shaking the loose appendage off his foot. He had put up with a lot of shit over the course of this day; burnt squirrels, a stolen car, getting beaten upside the head with a pipe, fucking Naoto; but this? No. Done. He didn't know whose finger that was, where it came from, or why Koromaru seemed to have swallowed it, but he didn't care. He was done with this crap. Naoto slowly lowered herself towards the finger to examine it as Justin went on his tirade, letting all the steam that had been building up inside him for the last few hours finally come out. She couldn't help but sigh with relief as she picked it up with the tips of her fingers; even if her fingers WERE covered in vomit now. "What is this!? WHAT IS THIS!? WHAT IS MY LIFE!?"

"If it's any conciliation; it's a prosthetic." Naoto remarked weighing the smelly, vomit stained finger in her hand. It was heavy, much heavier than she would expect one's finger to weigh if it weren't made of plastic and metal. It did beg the question who's finger this was; but they were just going to ignore that and pretend Koromaru hadn't swallowed someone's finger. Yu was only surprised that the dog listened when they tried to feed it to him, because you know ONE of them had to be responsible for this.

"I don't care if it was made of cheese; it looked like a finger and the dog fucking ate it!" Justin shouted, leaning over and thrusting his hand to the side with irritation. To be fair; it was still pretty fucked up whichever way you put it. "I can't do it! I can't fucking do it anymore! Look what we're dealing with! A finger, a cocaine addict, a pyromaniac, and probably a shit ton of STD's all around! You gotta draw the line somewhere! You gotta draw the FUCKING line in the sand! You gotta make a statement! You gotta look inside yourself and say 'what am I willing to put up with today?' NOT FUCKING THIS!" Justin shouted before storming off; kicking over a trash can in the process.

"…What just happened?" Maya questioned after a moment, trying to make heads or tails of this. Partially because that was some pretty weird shit; partially because Justin was just walking off in some random direction WITHOUT the dog to guide him to the culprit or Chie. Yosuke shook his head for a moment.

"Something very stupid."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

* * *

"The beginning is the end is the beginning, huh?"

Justin and the group had been following Koromaru around after their latest idea of having the dog try to trace their culprit's scent instead. It seemed that had been what the dog had been following since the beginning anyway. It wasn't their way to Chie, sure, and that broke Justin's heart just a little, but it was the means to finding out what the way to Chie was, and for seeing that the man who had done this to them faced punishment for his wicked deeds. The walk was surprisingly short; but that wasn't quite as surprising as where they had been lead. It seemed that the culprit's scent had lead them right back to the motel; more specifically the building across from it. It was run down and cryptic, most likely used as an apartment complex or something until funding was cut off. That wasn't what mattered though; what mattered was Koromaru had stopped here. This was where the scent trail ended. This was where they would finally confront their culprit. At least; so they hoped.

"You mean to tell me the culprit's been here the whole time!?" Yosuke shouted with annoyance. They had gone so far, dealt with so much shit, and yet they didn't even have to go further than a few feet from their rendezvous point. It did cement their theory they were being watched this entire time, though it did beg the question why he stayed. Why was he just watching? Was he getting some sick kick out of all of this? It was so confusing yet so irritating at the same time, to think this was all just some game for someone.

"You sure this is the place Koromaru?" Maya spoke, crouching down to her knee to speak to the canine. Koromaru of course simply barked with glee. He always did when Maya interacted with him; yet somehow it seemed like Maya had some sixth sense that allowed her to differentiate the barks and determine the message the dog was trying to convey. In this case it was confirmation; nothing more, nothing less. Maya nodded a bit before patting Koromaru on the head, the dog simply yipping with pleasure as her fingers coursed through his fur. "Yep, this is it alright."

"We've still got an hour left, let's get this over with quickly so we can get to what really matters." Justin barked before pushing his way past the group, kicking open the door ever so lightly to gain access inside. The others would have stopped him from just bursting into someone's house, but it was pretty clear this place hadn't seen human life in quite a long time. Or at least, not as a resident. The only person they'd be disturbing was their suspect, and fuck what he wants. He ruined EVERYTHING; his rights to privacy had been forfeit the moment he fucked with Justin and his friends.

And so the group slowly followed Justin into the building, old, dusty, and from appearances, not entirely structurally stable. Justin couldn't help but cough a bit as the dust floating around in the air made its way to his lungs. Someone should really hire a cleaning lady for this place; but then, Justin wasn't here for decorating tips. The man slowly crept around the house, checking every room and every corner for anything that was human appearance, slowly ascending the stairs after checking each floor out completely. It wasn't exactly a pleasant experience; it reminded him of sour days gone by, a sad past to say the least. He had nothing on Maya though; this place looked almost exactly like that apartment building back in California from the inside, and that scared the ever living shit out of her. She was almost afraid to step inside the building, but she had to reassure herself that it was nothing but a building. Things change, and what had happened years ago couldn't possibly happen again. Especially not here, especially not now.

"So what do we do when we find him?" Yukiko questioned as they slowly climbed the stairs, trying to find their culprit. She brought up a good question actually. Once they had their man, what were they going to do about it? They obviously couldn't just leave him there, but waiting for the cops to arrive would take too long. And then there was still a matter of getting information out of him. Given his interest in the group however, it's quite probable he'd be willing to part with such information. But they wouldn't know for certain till they found him. Until then, they should just focus on finding the guy. They could figure everything else out later.

"We ask him what he know, and if he refuses to tell us… we beat him within an inch of his life." Justin remarked, though it was hard to tell if he was joking or not. No one dared to ask; they'd find out soon enough anyway. The group slowly ascended the stairs, minute by minute, step by step, time slowly frittering away as they tried to find their guy. And yet even as time passed they couldn't see hide nor hair of the man. They were beginning to lose hope they'd ever find the guy.

And then they found the roof.

Justin sighed a bit as he kicked open the door, at first fearing that their suspect wasn't here after all, and that they had just wasted ten minutes searching for a man long out of their reach. You could imagine the sense of ecstasy that swept across Justin's face, fused with pure rage as he laid eyes on the man sitting on the edge of the roof, starring out into the horizon as if to watch the city as it changed before his eyes. He had long grey hair, way past his shoulders and face, and for some reason he wasn't wearing a shirt. He was a long and lanky, pale in skin color, dark tattoos spanning across his long, bony arms. Justin couldn't see it yet, but the man had golden eyes; and that wasn't even getting into that creepy grin. Justin didn't know the man's name, but he fit the description they got before. This was their suspect. The rest of the group son followed Justin through the door, expressions of surprise slowly turning to that of anger as they laid eyes on the man. All except for one Yukari, who had never been more flabbergasted in all her life.

"But wait, that's-!"

"…Faster than expected." The grey-haired man spoke up, with a slight sigh, a sinister tone to his voice as he sat there, dangling his legs over the edge of the rooftops. Justin slowly approached the man as he spoke observing with aggravated eyes and a balled up fist. This bastard had been nothing but trouble for them since the very beginning. "That was quite a show. You've been rather busy these last few hours." The grey haired man went to chuckle, but that immediately turned into a cough, his entire body leaning forward as he spat into his fist. It was a rather rough cough, though whether that was apparent by the sound of the cough itself or because of the blood that had shot out of his mouth and onto his fist was another question entirely. Still, despite the asshole being clearly sick as all hell, Justin was not deterred in his quest for payback.

"You motherfucker!" Justin shouted before punching the fucker in the side of his skull, causing him to twist around and spit even more blood to the side. Despite being rather scrawny and clearly not in the best of health it seemed he wasn't all that disjointed by the blow. He simply realigned his jaw a bit with his hand a slight glare on his face. That wasn't the reaction he was expecting; from what he had observed of Justin he was much looser than that. But then, he was also drunk as fuck, so that probably didn't go too far. "Is this all some goddamn game to you!? Do you not get what you did, YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!" And again, a second punch. Even though the bastard no doubt could see it coming he didn't even react as he received a second blow to the head. Justin was going to go for a third punch, but at this point Yu had ran up and stopped Justin from taking another swing. They couldn't interrogate the man if he couldn't breathe without a tube down his throat.

"You're supposed to be dead!" Yukari shouted at the grey haired man as he crawled away from Justin, shakily making his way to his feet. He looked sickly, weak even, clearly not being able to stand without trouble. It was strange seeing that their culprit couldn't even stand up straight; how could a man like this cause so much chaos and destruction. Hell how did he even have enough strength to go to work, to sabotage the drinks like that. This guy looked like he should have been in a hospital bed, not a roof looking over the city. A couple of confused eyes found their way to Yukari, though they eventually darted back to the suspect. They didn't need him trying to make a run for it after all.

"We all were supposed to be." The grey haired man chuckled a bit as he wobbled to his feet, eyes squinting in a sly glare, golden eyes still shining like a lightbulb in the dark. Justin knew what the golden eyes usually implied, a shadow of some shape or form, but there was one problem. This man spat up red blood, not the usual purple a shadow bled. It seemed very unlikely, but it seemed his golden colored eyes were in fact natural. Much like Maya's green eye color was in fact their natural tone. It was strange, but not entirely unheard of. "Either way, it shouldn't be a problem for much longer." He spoke before coughing in to his hand again. It didn't really take a genius to tell what the implications of Revolver Jesus's words were. He was sick. Very sick. But then, if he was so sick; why would you even pull a stunt like this? Get some fucking help, man.

"Friend of yours?" Justin questioned in an aside to Yukari. He wasn't quite sure what was going on as far as that angle went, but it was pretty clear she knew something. And what exactly did she mean 'supposed to be dead?' Why did Justin get this sinking feeling in his gut that Yukari was actually some sort of psychotic murderer, and this guy just the guy who lived to tell the story? Yeah, probably a little overkill with the conspiracy theory, but Justin could buy it. Yukari averted eye contact for a moment, biting her bottom lip as she contemplated how to word this without giving away any of what had happened with the Dark Hour. No one could know about that but the people that had been there.

"You could say that… His name's Takaya. We've had a couple of run-ins. He has a, uh… fatal condition. I thought he died months ago; but I guess you can't believe everything you see." Yukari delicately put it, trying to leave out the parts where Takaya was actually a complete evil bastard and had tried to kill them on several occasions. It would just lead to more questioning into the matter, and that would lead back to what had happened with SEES. And quite frankly, she'd like to forget all about that stuff anyway. Naoto sighed after a moment, rolling her eyes a bit. She didn't have time for backstories right now; they had work to do.

"Inaba Police Department." Naoto interrupted the melodrama, flashing her badge to the grey haired man for a moment. There was no denying this was their guy; he matched the description they received perfectly AND he clearly had knowledge of the drunken shenanigans. Match that with a scent that proves he had been following them around and actually made contact with Justin at one point. She had more than enough proof of his involvement. "You're under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law." The grey haired man stared at the police officer for a moment before laughing in an almost maniac fashion.

"I'm sorry officer, but I'm afraid that's not gonna happen." The man continued to laugh, clearly not threatened by Naoto in the slightest. Which was kind of stupid when you can barely stand. Well, there was one way of making it clearer that they meant business, that he WAS going downtown whether he liked it or not. And that was Justin and Naoto simultaneously pulling out their guns and training them on him.

"I'd beg to differ." Justin remarked snidely, revolver aimed straight at the asshole's chest. He'd go for the head, but killing him would only make things harder for them to get answers. And besides, who was going to justify Justin shooting this guy in the head just for drugging their drinks? That was disproportionate retribution to the highest degree. No, killing him would be a huge mistake, and Takaya clearly knew it. "Tell me something you prick; why'd you do it?"

"Why? It's quite simple really. Only be striving to live every moment to its fullest can we truly be satisfied." Takaya mused aloud, pacing around slightly, hand along his waist in what looked like him trying to hold his pants up. He wasn't of course, it was just the way he stood. "We fritter away every day, working for a better tomorrow, yet we never stop to truly enjoy the present. So we remain miserable, thinking that the future will be brighter, that if you just work a little harder everything will turn out for the better. But then the next day comes and you do the same, repeating an endless cycle until finally your life comes to an end. You all waste life in search of non-existant meaning instead of living in the moment…"

"…Are you fucking shitting me right now?" Justin choked up, jaw slightly open with disbelief. He thought he was getting what Takaya was trying to say, and if he was right… What… the… fuck? How is that even a reason to do something like that? You don't just go and drug a bunch of teenagers so they could 'find meaning in life.' You know what? Justin didn't learn shit about life. If ANYTHING, Takaya had gone and ruined his life, made him and his friends do things that no sane person should have to live with. His plan backfired; they were taught NOTHING.

"I don't believe it's a secret to any of you that I am not in the best of health. I have to work on a daily basis to get the funding for my medication; but even that is slowly killing me." Takaya continued, ignoring Justin. He didn't quite get it yet, even if he thought he did. "Months now I've wasted the little time I have just to buy myself a few more precious seconds. I've watched as you kids come and go in that club, satisfying your urges for even a few hours in your life. That is the way everyone should live, giving into their desires. But alas, when the club closes, everyone goes back to the cycle of working for tomorrow, but never being able to grasp it." Takaya sighed for a second, a devilish grin slowly creeping across his face. "And then I had a theory, a hypothesis if you will. The only reason they were able to live if for only a few hours in their life was because they were drunk off the atmosphere. In a drunken state of mind, one cares for nothing but what their heart yearns for; that is why they found satisfaction in the night. And I wondered; what would happen if one were always to be drunk off the atmosphere. Would they give into what their heart truly desired? Would they then live in the moment?"

"You mean to tell me you drugged us JUST to test some fucking idea you had? That we'd 'live in the moment?' I should pull this trigger right now you piece of shit." Justin growled at Takaya, slowly approaching the bastard, gun still drawn. Why? Probably to punch the fucker again; no one would object after hearing the criminal's motivations. "And getting drunk for a night is not being drunk forever, you dumb shit. No one can be drunk forever; OTHERWISE IT'S NOT BEING DRUNK!"

"But of course; I realize that. The events that conspired last night was nothing more than a test, to see if one could find bliss in a drunken state of mind." Takaya remarked, turning back away from the cityscape behind him to face Justin, a quick wave of his hand as if to wipe away the annoyances of Justin's constant vulgarities and ignorance. "The results were interesting to say the least. I have never seen a more destructive grouping of teenagers than what I saw last night." He mused to himself. Given that he knew people like Yukari here who denied humanity it's one true desire, he'd say that was saying a lot about the group last night. "It reinforces a theory I had long ago; humans desire nothing but salvation through their mutual destruction. But in the end, that is irrelevant; as destructive and chaotic as you were, you had been cheerful, finding bliss in yielding to what your heart truly wanted. I only regret that I fear I'll never find a means by which the entire populace could become so intoxicated to throw away these idle illusions of a future that does not exist."

"I'd like to see you try using that in court." Naoto muttered with annoyance. Of all the humiliation she and her acquaintances had suffered, it had all been just to test some stupid theory? She was happy this fucker was going to get thrown behind bars; probably for a long time given some of the crimes that the Investigation Team committed as a direct result of his actions. Justin continued to approach Takaya, gun trained on him the whole time, still an angered expression in his eyes.

"Last night was HELL, you dumb shit. Because of you the woman I love is nowhere to be found, someone somewhere has a pipe shoved up their ass, at least twelve squirrels were burnt alive, Kanji is apparently a pedophile now, oh yeah, and someone's missing a prosthetic finger."

"And I got a tattoo on my manhood. Don't forget that." Yu interrupted, as if not wanting his suffering to be diminished. To be fair, as painful as it probably was at the moment, that mistake could easily be remedied. Still pretty bad though.

"Yeah and that!" Justin shouted at Takaya before turning his gaze back to Yu. "What exactly did you get tattooed on your Johnson anyway?" Justin questioned. His attention really should have been focused on Takaya, but since they were talking about tattooed dicks at the moment, he figured it was probably worth asking anyway. If it was a small one, at least the laser removal afterwards would be relatively painless, right? Yu smiled a bit. If there was one bright side to getting your wang inked, it was the tattoo itself.

"It says 'handle with care.'" Justin couldn't help but chuckle. He was half joking when he thought earlier that would make for a good tattoo, but goddamn, to think Yu actually did it… It WAS pretty funny. Would be weird in bed, but still.

"Drunk you is hilarious."

"I know right? I'm actually thinking of keeping it." Yu mused to himself. Or at least, he had until he got a sudden dirty look from Yukiko, which was really concerning in a lot of ways. One; angry Yukiko could kill you in a blink of an eye if she tried. Second of all… why exactly did she care about what Yu's dick looked like? Neither Yu nor Justin took her as that kind of girl; hell none of them did. Maybe it was a just in case thing. After all, if anyone was going to see his dick at any point, it would be his girlfriend, right? And that just so happened to be Yukiko at the moment. She wasn't planning on looking at it anytime soon, but you know; just in case.

"Can we focus!?" Naoto interrupted the two, getting a little annoyed by the two getting sidetracked when they had their culprit right here in front of them. Hell, even Takaya seemed bewildered why they would have this conversation in front of him. Perhaps he didn't need to give the drinks to such fools; they seemed to be making assess of themselves without his assistance as it was. Justin waved his hand a bit, trying to push aside the abstract thought of their conversation with a sweep of his hand. For once, Naoto had a valid point.

"Right, right, sorry. The point is; that's not living in the moment or giving into the heart's desires, that's being stupid; and these are the consequences. Your hypothesis was wrong. You were wrong." Justin lectured Takaya; though to be fair, the grey haired man didn't seem very interested in Justin's words. The boy didn't seem to quite grasp that consequences were non-existent in a futureless world. "Now what's going to happen is simple. Since you're so convinced that there is no future; we'll see how your perception changes when you have nothing to look forward to for the rest of your short pathetic life but iron bars. And you're going to tell me right now where Chie is, or so help me god I will make sure the pain you feel will be so intense you'd WISH you weren't living in the moment."

Takaya stared blankly at Justin for a while, still carefully observing that the boy was trying to inch his way ever closer. The change was subtle enough that someone who wasn't expecting that wouldn't notice Justin creeping forward; but alas Takaya knew he was going to try and get in close to take him down. "I'm afraid I cannot oblige. Telling you her location would only be tickling your fantasies of a tomorrow that doesn't exist. I would suggest you stop worrying about what's going to happen, and just… accept what life throws at you." Takaya chuckled a bit, that devilish grin sweeping across his face again. Justin gripped his teeth together tightly, bottom lip clenched between his now trembling teeth, shaking with pure anger. Just accept it? JUST ACCEPT IT!? He would NEVER accept someone choosing his future for him; especially a future without HER.

"Fucking TELL ME!" Justin shouted dashing forward and ready to smack Takaya with the butt of his revolver. What Justin hadn't expected was for Takaya to anticipate the movement, grabbing Justin's wrist mid swing and swatting his other arm towards his waist, grabbing at the revolver that had been stashed along his waistline. The intention was clear; Takaya was going to blow Justin's brains all over the floor. The moment Justin threatened to put Takaya in a cell was the moment Takaya decided no one was leaving here without bloodshed. He had so much of his life already taken away from him, he wouldn't have a second more of it stripped away from him. His theory had been tested, he had his results, and ultimately Justin and his accomplices were useless now.

And yet, in his cold calculating mind as he quickly drew his gun and point the barrel up towards Justin's jaw line, he had forgotten a truth that had been staring him down the face the entire time. Justin wasn't the only that had a gun pointed at him this whole time. And while Takaya would like to have believed Justin was in the way of Naoto's shot; his calculations had been off. Naoto squeezed the trigger ever so quickly when she saw the dangerous predicament Justin had managed to get into, her bullet skimming just along Justin's rib cage and right through the center of Takaya's chest. Pain immediately shot up through Takaya, blood squirting out from both his mouth and chest. He was frozen in place for only a brief moment, fingernails digging into Justin's wrist as he tried to output the pain into the force of his hand before finally letting go, backing away slowly and stiffly.

"Down on the ground!" Naoto shouted out to Takaya as he continued to back away, blood spewing out into his palm. Takaya's wide eyed gaze of pain slowly shifted into that malicious grin of his again, a chuckle on his breath. No, there was no future. Not for him anyway. Maybe they could pull the bullet out from his torso, but they'd have to take him in for that. There was only two ways Takaya was leaving here. In police custody…

…Or a body bag.

"If you insist detective." Takaya chuckled, still walking backwards. Everyone was a little confused why he said he was going to comply, yet he continued to walk backwards. And then it hit them; he was purposely walking towards the edge of the building. Justin's eyes quickly darted back and forth between Naoto and Takaya, before trying to run after the bastard, hand extended.

"Wait, don't!" Justin shouted. He didn't care if this fucker lived or died, but at the very least, he needed that information on Chie's whereabouts. You couldn't get that from a dead man. Alas; it seems some people would rather take their secrets with them to the grave. Some people just wanted to watch the world burn. Takaya chuckled giving a sarcastic wave before taking one last step backwards, dislocating his body weight and tipping over the edge of the building. Mind you, this place was a good five or six stories high… There was… well… There was no chance he'd survive the fall; not in his fragile condition with a bullet in his chest anyway. A normal man would be luck to walk out with every bone in his body broken. Takaya was never normal though; and that had finally taken it's toll on the man.

The investigation team quickly rushed over to the side of the building, hoping to find Takaya in one piece. Even if he was an evil bastard, he was still a man after all; and this was no way to go out. Truth be told, the man certainly would have preferred going out on his own terms than succumbing to his condition, and while this wasn't quite the way he envisioned it, he was more than satisfied that he went out with a bang. Justin peered over the roof, trying to identify Takaya on the ground below. Alas, anything once humanoid in shape had disappeared once he collided with the ground, blood and gore splattered in each direction. As each member laid eyes on the remains, they had to avert their eyes; even Justin, who usually didn't even blink at this kind of gore in movies. It was a lot different watching that kind of stuff in a movie and having it happen in real life apparently.

"I think I'm going to hurl." Yukari remarked, trying to hold back the mucus trying to force its way out of her throat. This guy was a complete scumbag who should have been dead already as it was; but even then, you could say she developed some form of Stockholm Syndrome for the guy. She hated his guts, but the moment he exploded against the pavement like a watermelon, she couldn't help but feel this painful sensation in her chest, a memoir of her past suddenly gone with the wind. After all, even if Takaya was an asshole, what he had suffered was inexcusable. Meeting such a deadly fate in the end… It wasn't right. Even if he did choose this himself. Justin stared at the pavement beneath him, red stains scattered in everywhich direction before marching off, averting his gaze from the asshole for good. With him, so too did any and all leads the gang had to finding Chie die.

"…I should notify a coroner."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

* * *

_Where, oh, where have you been my love?_

_Where, oh, where can you be?_

_It's been so long, since the moon has gone._

_And oh what a wreck you've made me_

_Are you there, over the ocean?_

_Are you there, up in the sky?_

_Until the return of my love_

_This lullaby…_

"Justin, you're not helping."

So… that was it. There was only about ten minutes left till the bus back home left, and there was no sign of Chie anywhere. Really, all their hopes had lied on getting information out of Takaya, but I'm sure I don't need to explain how well that ended. And that was all there was to it. Takaya took the truth to the grave, and that was how it ended. Why he refused to tell them, Justin wasn't sure. Yukari couldn't say she was all that sure herself, and she knew the guy far more than any of the Investigation Team members had. His motivations in the end just didn't matter; he was dead, they were alive, and Chie was still missing. It probably didn't help that they all had to explain the situation to the police when they arrived to clean up the mess; valuable time they could have used talking it over. Or at least in theory. By this point Justin had lost all hope. Every single piece of evidence all lead its way back to Takaya, and with him gone, there was nothing left for them to find her with… It was over.

"Neither is sitting here and eating noodles…" Justin pointed out, a sad tone to his voice. He himself was not eating of course, though most of the others had been in an attempt at getting their minds off the issue. With ten minutes left, there was no way they could find her before they went back home; they were all in acceptance of that as much is it pained them. The best they could do was go home and buy a train ticket over the minute they got back. At least… those that could afford it. Those train tickets were expensive, and not everyone was a rich idol like Rise. Hell, Maya had more or less used her entire pay check for the week to catch a train ride here. She wouldn't have even thought about wasting her money like that had she not realized how dire the circumstances were. "I can't believe this shit… We've searched this entire town and yet we still can't find her…" Justin continued, fighting back tears. If they couldn't find her after searching this entire town, he was going to assume the worst. I mean sure, it was possible that she was moving around the city too, and that's why they hadn't crossed paths yet, but… She would have tried to make contact with them right? A pay phone or something…

"You guys have to get back on the bus soon, right?" Yukari questioned after a moment. She knew they had more or less given up searching at this point, but even then, she knew they would be leaving soon. At the very least she figured she should see them off. It was only a shame that she and Koromaru couldn't help them out in the long run. "I-If you'd like, me and Koromaru can keep looking around for you." Yukari suggested. As pissed as she was with them stealing her dog, they were nice people; at the very least she'd like to help to the best of her abilities.

"I haven't gotten my train ticket back yet either, so I can stay behind and keep looking." Maya added on to that thought. She and Chie might not have always gotten along, but at the end of the day, she was a good friend of hers, and an even better friend of Justin's… She wouldn't leave as long as she knew Chie was in this city. She couldn't say for certain, but she had a felling the others would do the same if they could; but alas, they couldn't just go wandering around the city when the teachers had to take attendance and all that crap. The shit storm that would brew if they didn't show up for that bus would be immeasurable in size. Maya, of course, didn't go to school, so she had no reason to leave. She'd stay behind as long as she could to find their missing friend. Justin nodded slightly, though you could tell his heart wasn't really into it. At the moment, he was pre occupied fiddling with the sweatbands along his wrists; as if that would change anything. If his heart had been in the right place, he probably would have told Maya not to stick behind by herself, but at this point he just didn't care. About anything. About anyone.

"Cheer up a little Justin… I mean, we haven't found her yet; but we still have time. We just need to take a little… detour." Yu tried his best to raise Justin's spirits. I mean, there was nothing to be happy about sure; but this… this was borderline depression Justin was exhibiting right now. The poor guy looked like his heart had been broken, ripped out of his chest, spit on, then stomped into the ground. Justin just shook his head a bit. He appreciated what Yu was trying to do; but it wasn't working. Justin couldn't take Yu seriously at all when he was eating noodles and Chie was still out there; probably hurt given half the shit they had done last night. If he really cared about all of this, he'd put the noodles down and try to spend the few minutes they had left wisely.

"You just don't get it. I mean, what would you do if it was Yukiko who got lost?" Justin remarked, quietly though so that Yukiko couldn't hear them. She wouldn't be offended or anything like that, but Justin felt a little awkward using someone that was here as an example. Yu paused for a moment, a sad expression slowly creeping across his face. Justin really had to go there didn't he?

"…I don't know. Probably the same thing…" Yu admitted after a while, sighing a bit. Justin had a point as much as he hated that he was trying to use Yu's love life as a point. He supposed it was all matters of the heart that caused one to act the way Justin was right now. He was acting like he had a broken heart because he did have a broken heart. He'd like to convince himself that everything would be fine in the long run, but he wasn't sure he could believe that. His heart said yes but his mind said no.

"I'm ashamed to admit that despite my efforts, I haven't been able to turn up any other evidence that could point to Miss Satonaka's location." Naoto mumbled to herself with embarrassment. She was an ace detective, and despite that, she found nothing that could solve their mystery. She put out a missing person report when she spoke to the police officers over Takaya, so hopefully that would help; but other than that she was afraid she had been completely useless in this investigation. This had all gone to shit in every way. It wasn't like they had done some crappy stuff but there was a happy ending or anything along those lines; they fucked up, these were the consequences… and that was it. It wasn't fair, but it's what was going to happen; and they had no say in the matter. That was fate. "I spoke to Officer Kurosawa again over her whereabouts, but it appears he hasn't seen her either."

And with a single comment, Justin's eyes darted up from the counter beneath him, his eyes lighting up like twin candles. Justin slowly turned around in his chair, turning to face Naoto with his jaw slightly a jar and hope in his heart. Naoto might have pissed him off 99% of the time, but today… today she might have just fell within that tiny one percentile. But only if Justin was positive that what she had said was what he thought she had said. "…What did you say?"

"Hmm?" Naoto grunted with slight confusion. She was under the impression she had managed to offend Justin somehow at first, but given that he started making a rolling motion with one of his hands in impatience, it seemed that was a serious question. "I asked Officer Kurosawa if he saw Miss Satonaka, but he informed me he did not." Justin slowly turned back around to face forward in his seat, letting the thought really sink in for a moment. Officer Kurosawa didn't see her. How could they have been so foolish as to overlook this until now?

"Dear God, that's it!" Justin spoke up, eyes raising from the table beneath him as he finally realized what had struck him as off about Naoto's comment. "Naoto, you're a genius." Justin praised her as he jumped up from his seat, a wide grin on his face and his chest pounding in time with his heart. He could almost feel Chie now, and his heart longed to be with her once more. He couldn't give up hope; especially not now. Everyone passed Justin a confused expression as if he were crazy. They weren't seeing what was so smart about Naoto asking a question. Perhaps they didn't realize this was the only question that needed to be answered.

"Thanks...? I'm not really sure what I did, but I appreciate it." Naoto remarked with confusion. She was only grateful that for once in Justin's life he had actually given her a compliment. She still didn't hold him in high-esteem and she was still convinced he was a criminal, but she was grateful all the same.

"Don't you get it? Officer Kurosawa never saw her!" Justin continued to shout with excitement, though he still had failed to really explain to them what was going on, that he had managed to just crack the code. "Officer Kurosawa has to keep a close eye on that club due to, as Naoto put it, 'a string of drunk driving incidents.' It's a dangerous place at night after all, so he monitors the area. That's how he was able to describe Takaya to us. So tell me... How was it he saw all of us... But not Chie?"

Naoto's eyes immediately opened wide with shock. The answer to the puzzle had been right in front of them the whole time; they were just too thick-skulled to notice it. "My god... He's right. If Miss Satonaka had left with us, Officer Kurosawa should have recognized the description I gave him, yet we know he had been observing the entrance at the time we left as he was able to describe to me everyone else who left that establishment." Naoto explained further for the less than intelligent members of the group. And by that I mean Yosuke and Kanji.

"He's not the only one either." Maya chimed in, feeling she had more to add to their current theory; of course assuming that their current theory was what she thought it was. It was for the record. You had to hand it to Maya; she was actually pretty clever for a girl who never finished eight grade. I guess it was street smarts versus book smarts. And being homeless for a year and a half most certainly gave her more street smarts than anyone present at the moment. "Everyone we've asked on the streets said they hadn't seen anyone that looked like Chie. I thought it was a bit odd that a teenager causing havoc around town wasn't so much as leaving a trail."

"What exactly are you three trying to say?" Yosuke eventually spoke up with great confusion. He'd like to think he was the brains of the Investigation Team, but they all knew that was far from true. Still, despite how obvious it seemed to Justin what he was getting at, he wasn't pissed at Yosuke for missing the point and being a complete idiot. He was too overjoyed to see his mystery solved, and with five minutes to spare too.

"It's simple Yosuke... She never left the club." And that was about when the last horses crossed the finish line. Hell, Justin had seen people get soda in their nose when they were shocked, but this would be the first time he had seen the same happen with Ramen. Would serve Teddie right for chowing down like this was no big deal. All the same, everyone was surprised by the sudden reallzation. They never once considered the possibility of her still being in the club. Hell, Yosuke, Justin, and Naoto didn't even see her when they rushed inside the first time. That's probably because they forgot to check upstairs where they had reserved the top floor for the evening.

"Well what are you waiting for, go!" Yukari encouraged the others. Justin passed one last glance towards her, nodding with confirmation before running out the door, Yukari waving goodbye to each of them as they rushed to their lost treasure. That would be the last time the Investigatin Team and Yukari crossed paths. They didn't need her or her services anymore, though the memory of her and all she had done for them would linger in the team's minds for the rest of their lives. Gone, but not forgotten. As for the Investigation Team, well, the club was only next door, so it was a very short dash. That didn't mean it didn't take a shit ton of effort and banging on the door to get the bartender's attention a second time. He wasn't too pleased either by the second interruption to his work.

"Oh, it's you kids again... Look, I already told you everything I know." The bartender tried to dismiss them with annoyance before they could waste more of his time asking questions he didn't have answers to. That was until Naoto reminded him she was an officer of the law, or at least as close to one as one could get from being a teenage detective.

"That shouldn't be a problem; we just need to look inside. Would you mind unlocking the private room on the top floor for us? I assure you, we'll be in and out." Naoto explained, adjusting her hat oh so slightly as she spoke. The bartender glared at her for a moment, annoyed, but all too aware that he had to comply, even if she was interrupting his work with childish games and false pursuits. He sighed after a few seconds in defeat.

"...Fine, you have two minutes." The bartender remarked with impatience, sighing as he checked his waistline for the keys to the private room upstairs. Justin went to give Naoto a high-five for getting them access a second time, but it seemed she wasn't quite aware how a high-five worked; her eyes simply staring at Justin's extended hand with great confusion. It took a moment before Justin sighed and let his arm drop back down to his side. Suddenly he remembered why Naoto pissed him off so much... Well minus the whole murder accusations thing. Whatever, he didn't need Killjoy Mcgee here's high-five anyway... he'd save it for someone he felt was much more deserving of one. After he practically suffocated the woman by latching on to her for dear life that is. Justin held his breath with cautious optimism as they slowly ascended the stairs, longing to put all of this to an end and be reunited with the one he loved once again. He could feel his heart beat slow with a mixture of hope and fear as the bartender slid the key into the door, opening up to allow them access. The group's eyes scanned the room, searching for any signs of the girl... But... Something wasn't right.

"...Where is she?" Justin spoke up after a few seconds of scanning the room. He didn't see Chie anywhere. There were glasses tipped every which way and liquid spilled all over the floor, but there was no sign of human life in this room. Justin's heart skipped a beat as he looked around to find his theory completely incorrect. She wasn't here. They were so damn close; but she wasn't here. He could feel tears well up in his eyes as what was so close within his reach was taken from him in an instant. He should have never gotten his hopes up... His heart couldn't take anymore of this. Or any of it at all for that matter. Perhaps that was why he was suddenly so eager to turn around and depart for he bus. Just looking at this club was tugging to hard on his heartstrings.

"Ooooohhhhh..."

...

"...What was that?" Justin paused, hearing a groan echo through the club. He didn't see anyone, but he definitely heard someone. Naoto just smirked a bit, leaning against the wall behind her and folding her arms. How quickly Justin was willing to ignore what was not within his perception that he failed to notice one very basic thing...

"It seems our missing friend is just behind that coach." Naoto remarked with the slightest hint of sarcasm as she pointed out what she had thought was completely obvious. Justin's skin turned pale, and he froze in place for just a brief moment as he let Naoto's words soak in. Slowly, he crept his way over to the other side of the coach they had planted their asses on the night before, heart failing to beat and lungs failing to respond as he put the last of his soul into his hope. Sure enough, sprawled across the floor, clutching her head in an attempt at numbing the hangover, was Chie Satonaka.

"ughhhh... What's going on...?" Chie mumbled slightly as she flinched in time to the beating on her skull. From the sounds of it, she had been asleep all this while; which might have explained why she didn't answer her phone... Or at least, it would have if Naoto hadn't spotted Chie's cell-phone floating around in one of he few remaining glasses of cola. Not that any of that mattered; within a split-second Justin dove down to wrap his arms around her neck, holding her closer than he had ever held her before as tears of joy ran down his cheeks like waterfalls. "Whoa, h-hey...!?"

"Don't you ever do this to me again, you hear me?"

* * *

"And all of this happened while I was asleep?"

The Investigation Team had all crammed into the back of the school bus, save Maya who was at the train station, though not before getting Chie an aspirin and some sunglasses to hide just how piss drunk she had been. They recapped pretty much everything that had happened last night for her, the cocaine, the arson, the streaking, the prosthetic finger, the stolen car and dog... The only thing Justin neglected to mention was screwing Naoto. One day he was going to have to tell her what had happened, but for now, he was satisfied just knowing she was alright.

"It was a hell of a night... I'd be happy to never see an alcoholic beverage again in my life after all of this." Justin joked slightly, snaking his arm around Chie's neck in an attempt at keeping her as close as possibly. She didn't understand why he was being so clingy, and perhaps she didn't want to know. All she knew was it was strange and kind of embarrassing. He knew how she got about public signs of affection like this...

"You have to admit; it does make for a good story though." Yukiko chuckled slightly, a wide grin in her face. You know, it was funny; now that everything was over, it didn't seem so bad. They'd never do it again, but at the very least it was over and most everyone could laugh about this. Save maybe Rise. It was gonna take a while for her hair to grow back... And I guess laser removal on your dick would sting too in Yu's case, though he did sound kind of serious about keeping it. Justin could understand not wanting anyone to touch your junk after that. A couple of laughs could be heard from the back of the bus as they laughed at their drunken shenanigans... Or at least, they had until they heard an odd buzzing sound. Justin's face scrunched up with a sour, confused expression as he slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

"This is literally the epitome of why Apple products suck." Justin remarked with disgust and annoyance as he stared at his now flickering to life iPhone. Figures this thing was dead when he needed to get in touch with all his friends, but the moment that the emergency was resolved, suddenly his phone decided it had just a little more juice. Probably about ten minutes worth or so knowing Apple. Justin was about to slide the phone back in his pocket when he heard a second beeping sound coming from his phone. "Goddammit, what is... it... now..." Justin couldn't believe his eyes as he read the notification that had popped up before him: Insufficient Memory; photo could not be saved. Apparently drunk Justin thought it was a good idea to document all their shenanigans for prosperity sake. "Oh no. No no no no!"

"You took pictures?" Yu questioned with great curiosity. Either that was the most brilliant idea Justin had come up with, knowing they'd all forget everything, or the stupidest knowing that he'd be leaving evidence of their crimes on that phone. Still, they had all been laughing about the night prior as it was... Maybe a couple of goofy pictures wouldn't be so bad... "Well let's see what you got." Justin immediately shot Yu a glare as if he were crazy.

"Hell no! I'm deleting these."

"Oh come on, don't be like that. A couple of pictures won't hurt anyone." Rise intejected. She herself was curious what the pictures were about: And who knows, maybe they could find out who had burnt her hair off and left her bald for a long while (spoilers, it was Yukiko.) The others slowly started to nod with agreement with Rise and Yu. They were genuinely interested in what Justin had managed to capture with his camera, and it's not like they could just pretend last night never happened. They had to face their mistakes head on or else they'd never learn from them.

"Come on, just a quick peak. We can delete them right after." Chie begged of Justin. Having been unconcious the whole time, she wanted to see just what kind of damage the others had managed to create. Justin stared at her blankily for a moment before a small grin swept his face and a tiny chuckle escaped his airwaves. Oh what he would do for this woman.

"Alright, alright... But once we look I'm deleting everything, got it?" Justin laid down the ground rules. The Investigation Team simply nodded a bit before crowding around Justin and his phone like mice to a block of cheese. It was a tight fit with all of them on a bus, but they managed to make it work. "Okay... Three... Two... One."

**"WHOA!" **The majority of the team gasped in synchronization, some amused, some completely disgusted. And when I say most I do mean everyone but Chie and Justin. Why? Well the minute Justin saw the picture he passed out; and the minute Chie saw the picture she had kicked the unconscious Justin as hard as she humanly could.

"Huh... I guess Naoto was a girl after all."

* * *

**END**


End file.
